Any good beer store earns their props when they offer a ''build your own six pack'' section. It is a wonderful way to explore the world of craft brews. You can taste the entire beer spectrum without committing yourself to a potentially bad experience with an expensive four or six pack. It encourages beer fans to be adventurous and can uncover some seriously tasty creations. On the flip side, you also have to drink a lot of ''meh'' beers to find those diamonds in the rough. He'Brew Messiah Bold is one such ''meh'' beer.

This beer's appearance was really off-putting. There is a lot of weird looking sediment in the brew that just tends to float in place, almost like particles in syrup. It just looks, well, dirty. The coloration is fine though, just a standard deep brown with some mahogany tones when held up to a light source. But unfortunately you can't get past that nasty looking sediment to even appreciate the coloration. The smell is pretty standard for a brown ale with some sweet malts and caramels, but is quite weak. Truth be told, I was dreading that first sip based solely on appearance.

The taste really throws you off because it doesn't match the aroma at all. It's more of a smokey, coffee like flavor with some nuttiness thrown in. It's very imbalanced and none of the flavors really pop. They just lazily fall over each other in your mouth and create one very unpleasant experience. Oddly enough, the mouthfeel is pretty smooth despite the appearance. It's a bit watery and goes down fairly easily. The finish is decently clean and free of grit, but it does leave a weird aftertaste that I can't put my finger on.

Overall, He'Brew Messiah Bold isn't a good beer. It's certainly better than the mass-produced piss water, but it fails as a brown. You could quite literally close your eyes and pick any random ale out of the browns section and get something better than this. I can't even recommend it to novices because there are so many great intro brown ales in the craft brew world. Better to just stay clear of this one.