It’s cold outside. I’m back in Illinois after a nice, warm week in sunny Florida, and I’m hating it. This is one of the reasons why we decided to move to Florida in the first place. We just don’t tolerate winter any more. Forget tolerating it…I down right loathe it. So, to honor the sub-freezing temps, I thought I’d drink a little. 🙂
My wife bought me a 4-pack of Murloc after one of her weekend jaunts to Sarasota to hang at Calusa, which has become our new obsession in south Florida. I wasn’t sure about this beer. If you recall my last brown ale post, I said I wasn’t entirely sold on brown ales until I had a BA brown ale from, you guessed it, Calusa. Well, I’m sitting here in the 27-degree night in southern Illinois waiting for the snow to start falling with my youngest daughter keeping me company. She’s trying a 450 North sweet stout (and not really liking the bitterness! I’ll have a review of that one soon!), and I’ve decided to pop this one open. Don’t worry, my youngest daughter is 21. We’re empty nesters, hence reason number two for moving to Florida.
Calusa calls Murloc “the quintessential British session beer. Full, toasted malt complexity greets smashing drinkability in this traditional style.” Well, they nailed the style. Murloc pours dark but slightly translucent in the light with a slight off white head that evaporates quickly to nothing. Calusa boasts that they use all UK ingredients in Murloc, which is very cool. The aromas on this beer are very straight forward toasted or burnt malt. It’s very…English. I’ve had a few English browns in my day and this beer nails the style. There’s a hint of coffee on the nose paired with the toasted malt. It’s a thin-bodied beer with some roasty bitterness on the tongue. It goes down easy. This is such a different type of beer from Calusa and a pleasant surprise. As usual, my wife was not wrong. This is a nice beer that nails the style and is easy drinking.
Well, it’s not snowing…yet. So that’s something, right?
Beer Stats
- ABV: 4.5%
- Untappd Rating: 3.78