Beer Flash: Charter Oak Brewing Co. - "Courageous Special Ale"

Here's a beer flash from New Canaan, CT-based Charter Oak Brewing Company. It's their "Courageous Special Ale", a 7.9% ABV American strong ale weighing in at 86 IBUs. For those of you unfamiliar - IBU stands for "International Bittering Unit", a unit of measure for how bitter a beer is. I have seen beers range from 25 IBUs (not at all bitter) to Mikkeller's "1000 IBU" imperial IPA (face-meltingly bitter.)

The Courageous Special pours dark red, generating a tan head, and when candled is sort of a light amber color, and cloudy. It tastes dark, a little bitter, like a good English bitters. It's malty at first, but then becomes sharp, aromatic, and strong, with a heavy hand of hops on the finish and a strong aftertaste of walnuts. Not super bitter, and just the kind of thing I'd expect to drink in a dark, wood-lined pub back in Warwickshire!