The Brew Guru Tastes Leinie's Fireside Nut Brown, or, Brownie with natural flavor

The Brew Guru isn’t really into beer-food pairings. As long as there’s beer, he’s happy; the food is just gravy. But the general lack of tradition of beer being an integral part of the Thanksgiving meal is mystifying. It’s a feast, right? A celebration of bounty, of plenty, of abundance? So how can you have that without a great beer? Not just the really good beer you have in your fridge 300 days of the year, but a great beer for special occasions – a once-a-year beer. So this year, join The Brew Guru in declaring beer – preferably a fall/winter brew and preferably brewed in Wisconsin – as essential to Thanksgiving as turkey.

This week’s brew: Fireside Nut Brown

Style: Brown ale

Brewed by: Leinenkugel Brewing Co., Chippewa Falls.

Availability: This Leinie has taken over the winter seasonal slot that opened when Creamy Dark moved to year-round production. Officially, it’s only offered in November and December.

Taste: The first sip of Fireside ignited an instant deja vu back to winter 2006 and Miller’s limited-release chocolate lager. That beer was spiked with actual chocolate; here the effect presumably comes from the two-row malt. Caramel, hazelnut and maple notes combine with the chocolate to make this a brownie of a beer, but it’s a complexity that’s somewhat suspicious. As with other new Leinie’s brews the last few years, Fireside bears “Beer with natural flavor” on the label. This is uncommon on beer labels, so either Leinie’s is cheating at brewing or is overly honest. Either way, serve Fireside above typical fridge temperature to let that cornucopia of flavor breathe.

Backwash: The nut brown is probably a bummer of a style to brew: It’s easy to mess up, and even when you nail it, it’s ... still just a nut brown, unobjectionable and interesting but never transcendent the way a great weizen, stout or pale can be. That said, you can hoist worse beers over your gravy-covered plate this Thanksgiving.

2 mugs (out of four)