Big Boss Bad Penny Brown Ale

Once again, Pint Nite at Tyler’s Taproom at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham! Mark, Zack and I spent some time there celebrating Mark’s new position at our company. Tonight on tap was the Big Boss Brewing Co’s Bad Penny Brown Ale, one of the better beers I’ve had there. I’m probably a little biased, though, because the Bad Penny is just about everything I enjoy in a beer: it’s a not-too-bitter dark with a nice caramel flavor and a pleasant aftertaste, easily drinkable. For comparison drinking, it’s more complex than a Newcastle Brown Ale, but in the same style.

Update: No, actually. After having tried more, it's not really in the same style as a Newcastle. Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote this originally.

And for those of you uninitiated to Fried Pickle Chips – try them out. They’re great, especially with a little ranch dipping sauce.

The free glasses featured the Bad Penny logo on one side (the stylized face of a female I can only assume is “Penny”) and the Big Boss Brewery logo on the other. Both logos were in the dual-color white and plum (?) color. It’s nice to see a two-color logo with some actual color (not just black and white – take a note, Ska Brewing!), and the design of both logos is attractive.

Free Glass Score: 7/10

I’m looking forward to making Pint Nite a weekly thing again. We’ll see how that flies in the future.

Ska Brewing Nut Brown Ale

Pint Night last night at Tyler’s in American Tobacco was with Drew and Zach from work, and Zach’s friends Noah and his brother and Lindsey. The pint night special was Ska Brewing’s Nut Brown Ale, a good, full brown with just a little hop and lots of flavor. It actually reminds me quite a bit of an English brown ale Zach, Mark, Bob, Joel and I made in February this year. Goes down pretty smooth and has a decent sweet flavor like a good brown ale should.

The free glasses featured the Ska Brewing logo in black and white on one side of the glass. The majority of the score is based on the logo itself – nothing special, but also minus a point for not having color, regardless if those are the brewery’s colors or not. Logo only on one side doesn’t win it any bonus points, either. Overall, a solid middle-of-the-road glass.

Free Glass Score: 4/10

Brooklyn Brewery Lager and Summer Ale

I had a great time at Pint Night at Tyler’s in American Tobacco last night. Mark and Glenn from downstairs, and half or so of the Blackwell folks hung out for a while. The special for the night was Brooklyn Brewery, and they had the lager and the summer ale for tasting.

Most of them took off after a round or so, but Mark, his wife and I hung out until around 7 when Caroline came in, and the two of us got a table for dinner.

Good time had by, well, at least me…hopefully all!

Brooklyn Lager Pint Night Glasses
Free Glass Score: 7/10

The glasses they let you keep featured the Brooklyn Brewery Lager logo in green and on both sides. Nice glasses, one of the better logos. I took the usual two for my collection.