Lazy Magnolia says:
Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale is the first beer in the world, to our knowledge, made with whole roasted pecans. The pecans are used just like grain and provide a nutty characteristic and a delightful depth to the flavor profile. This beer is very lightly hopped to allow the malty, caramel, and nutty flavors shine through.
Howdy, y’all.
Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale
English Brown Ale, 4.25% ABV
Karl: I had the opportunity to head down, down down to that burning ring of fire south of the Mason Dixon line recently, and took a whirlwind trip through Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Before my departure I put out a query on the tweetyspaces (and hey, follow us on Twitter!) to see if there were any good brews to check out, or at least anything local to dig into if I had a second. The results that came back were united – Lazy Magnolia is the brew of choice in the Mississippi Delta.
While we started off in Vicksburg (home of Coca-Cola, Civil War tourism, casinos and obesity) we had a chance to drive around and check out the town. There were a lot of cool old buildings and antebellum architecture and the like, but it was mostly like channeling Clark Griswold – “Hey, kids, look at all this blight!” There wasn’t a lot of there there, you know? It was mostly a cajun-style bummer, just sad to see history falling down around you.
My brother brought us down to the banks of the Mighty Mississippi to a seafood restaurant where, lo and behold, buried underneath layers of macrobrew and Miller Lite and Vortex Bottles sold to an otherwise oblivious populace, was the Lazy Magnolia Pecan Nut Brown. Hallelujah, said I, as I ordered one to pair with my po’ boy filled with fried oysters and shrimp.
I was fresh from my experience with the Shiner Cheer and visions of pecans and nutty, bright Southern glory danced through my brain. It was winter, I wasn’t freezing in Chicago and I had a nice Mississippi beer to pair with a good southland sandwich as the waters of America’s River lapped up just steps away from us. And I had the Lazy Magnolia Pecan. And…there wasn’t much there there.
It poured a nice tan with nut notes on the aroma and a lighter heft than I’m used to from this type of brown ale. The general lack of weight to the beer wasn’t a bad thing, though – I could see it working quite well in the general climate that the South brings to the table. I don’t want to drink a monstrously heavy beer when it’s 94 degrees at 100% humidity either. But did it give me that pecan-y, buttery taste that I wanted?
Alas, it did not. Right at the end the nutty presence changed to a more pecan flavor but never came through enough to save it. Otherwise the balance was nice and the flavor was good, and I was certainly more than happy to find it instead of being stuck with another macrobrew. But in the small shipment that made its way north to share out with some of my friends, the Pecan Nut Brown didn’t make the cut.