Tommyknocker Legend Review

Name: Tommyknocker Legend
Style: American Strong Ale
ABV: 10%

Tommyknocker Brewing is a brewery that I have not had since I was in college, but about 2 years back I had a couple of their beers and I thought they were pretty good. Thanks to the growler station over in Superior, I'm able to do my first actual Tommyknocker review and it's a fairly special beer. Tommyknocker Legend was brewed to commemorate the brewery's 15 years in business. According to the brewer, it's a Nut Brown Ale brewed with maple syrup and aged with toasted Hungarian Oak.

Interestingly enough, when I go to look this up on Beer Advocate & Ratebeer, quite a few of the reviewers got their fix of this beer from a 2009 22oz. bottle. At the place I got it at, it was available at the growler fill station and in 4 pack bottles.

Legend pours a clear crimson color with a thin filmy head. The lacing left behind is somewhat sparse but sticky and the visible carbonation is quite mute.

The nose has a very pungent aroma of oak, maple syrup, chocolate malts, yeasts and roasted barley. It smells quite powerful, but thankfully not in a boozy sort of way.

The flavor profile is made up of mainly maple syrup, oak, roasted barley, molasses, nuttiness, chocolate malts and a lightly roasted aftertaste and malty aftertaste. Each flavor is fairly well balanced and it's worth noting that this is the first beer I've had that utilizes the maple syrup to it's fullest potential.

The palate is quite heavy in weight, but the carbonation is rather mild so it allows you to really get to know the flavors in this beer.

Even though it's classified as an American Strong Ale, I'd be more inclined to call this an Imperial Brown Ale (If such a category even exists) because that's what this pretty much is. As such, it's got a very robust flavor profile that may not be for anyone but I enjoyed this alot and, as I mentioned before, it utilizes the maple syrup flavor to it's fullest more than I've seen in any other beer.

Tommyknocker Legend - 9/10