Half Acre’s third canned brew arrived in February 2011 in the form of Over Ale. It’s fair to say their other two canned beers Gossamer Golden Ale and Daisy Cutter Pale Ale – are pretty much adored by the Craft Cans team, so our expectations are calibrated to “very high” for this one.    

From the Half Acre site:

"This brown beer is brewed with six varieties of malted barley and balanced with three generous hop additions. You'll find a big malt body with bitter bones. Enjoy this beer."

the canning line at Half Acre

Here we go...

Pour - deep, dark brown color with a big but loose tan head on the top.  Lacing was minimal as the head broke down fairly quickly.

Aroma - bready, almost earthy malt with a little molasses and toffee sweetness.  Just a touch of alcohol perks up the sinuses, which is surprising for a 6% brown ale.  

Taste - caramel malt sweetness takes center stage with each sip and is followed by some fig-like sweetness before the bittering hops dash across the palate.  Some brown sugar and light maple syrup sweetness lingered for a while between sips.  There’s quite a bit going on here. 

Half Acre Beer Company

Overall - a pretty complex and very enjoyable brown ale.  If you chug this one cold you’ll miss a lot.  The interplay between the different malts works well, and the different sweet tastes kept it interesting down to the bottom of the glass.  If you can’t quite pin down all the flavors you won’t be alone, but the words running across the top of the can seem to give us an out:  “Quite possibly exactly what you think it is.” 

Note - Half Acre may be the quintessential neighborhood craft brewery.  It takes up less than a quarter of a block in a Chicago neighborhood, has a small retail area with two taps to fill your growler on your way home, and a cooler from which you can snare a couple pint cans to smuggle on to the golf course.