While brewing the ill-fated Imperial Root Beer Stout, I had the opportunity to try a few beers I’ve not had before, which in my case is a really exciting thing. The first, and biggest surprise of the day, was Lagunitas‘ Brown Shugga. A quick look at the bottle let me know this was no ordinary brown sugar beer. The image is framed by this quote, “We believe this special ale is something unique. Feeding Brown Cane Sugar to otherwise cultured brewery yeast is akin to feeding raw shark to gerbil. It’s unlikely to ever occur in nature without human intervention. And it looks weird besides. But it has happened and now its too late.”

What I was expecting was a sweet, malty ale with a light tan, medium head. What I got was a clear copper color, light head, with a hoppy, alcoholic nose, and a slight amount of brown sugar.

It was slightly sweet, and very hoppy. I was completely blown away by this. It was pretty good. I’d give it a 7 on a scale of 1-10. Now that I know this is more akin to an IPA with brown sugar, it may be more properly enjoyed next time. Actually, this really almost bordered on a young barleywine. Very interesting. I’ll purchase it again, given the opportunity.

-brian