Tag Archives: brown ale

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April 29, 2013

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Holy City debuts beard-honoring brew Friday

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Beer and beards go together like two peas in a pod, and it’s a style evident in our own neck of the woods. From COAST’s David Merritt to Brewery 85’s Will McCameron and so on, beer geeks in the Palmetto State take pride in their facial hair, as well they should.

Holy City takes that appreciation to new levels this week with the debut of their Chucktown Follicle Brown, a brown ale brewed in honor of the 4th Annual Southeastern Beard & Mustache Championship, being held May 25 in Charleston. The beer will be released this Friday, May 3, and the Holy City Beard & Mustache Society will be on hand to enjoy the brew (and likely get some of it stuck in their flavor savers).

Note: This beer, unlike Rogue’s Beard Beer, was not brewed using yeast cultured from the beard of the brewers. I think. You might want to check with Holy City’s Chris Brown (center) on that, though.

Even if you aren’t blessed with facial hair, you can still come and enjoy the new release. The tasting room opens at 4 p.m.

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October 5, 2012

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Sixpoint Brownstone

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Sixpoint Brewery

Brooklyn, NY

Brownstone Brown Ale

6% ABV

Sixpoint seems to be doing everything right. I was wowed by Resin and Apollo, and I regularly look forward to whatever new release they crank out. That trend continues with Brownstone, their new year-round brown ale.

Their website doesn’t help much with ingredients, so I’ll just dive right in.

The look of the beer certainly lives up to the name. It’s a very murky, hazy brown that appears as a lighter amber toward the edges. There’s two fingers of a nice foamy head that sticks around a good long while. Incredibly strong lacing and alcohol legs, or at least more than I’d expect for a 6% beer.

There’s a surprising hoppiness on the nose. It’s a big, bright citrus notes with a definite presence of some lemon zest. There’s definitely a maltiness to it with a slightly nut and bread note. Bit of brown sugar and a really nice roasted note. It really works to keep a really balanced nose.

The hop bitterness is very strong on the front of the tongue. The citrus pops mid palate and lingers on the back with a bit of hop mouth, but it gives way to that classic biscuity brown ale taste. There’s a really great roasted note that lingers as well. The big bready malts are covered nicely with those hops. At 6%, it’s extremely drinkable.

Sixpoint is three-for-three with me, and every beer of theirs I’ve had so far has one thing that really makes it stand out. Resin clearly had its super-dank hoppiness, Apollo was smooth and flavorful, and Brownstone is balanced extremely well. The hops clearly get me hooked, but the roasted notes and maltiness are very pleasant as well. Keep ’em coming, guys.

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September 21, 2012

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Widmer Brothers Kill Devil

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Widmer Brother Brewing

Portland, OR

Brothers’ Reserve Kill Devil Brown Ale

9.5% ABV

You know when you go to the grocery store and scan the aisles for something new to try, and you see a few different six packs from a brewery you’ve heard of before and think, “Nah, that’s probably nothing special”? In short, that’s my relationship with Widmer Brothers.

You can walk into any grocery store around here and find plenty of Drifter Pale Ale, or Drop Top Amber Ale, or their Hefeweizen, but in my experience, they’re always one of those last resort craft beer choices. I can’t say I blame people for passing over them. I’ve found nothing about the aforementioned beers that would really push me to buy them again.

But I’ll be damned if I have not been proven wrong time and time again with what these guys have been cranking out recently.

The Rotator Series of IPAs is consistently impressive. The Alchemy Project – Barrel Aged Brrrbon, Raspberry RIS – is stellar. And the Brothers’ Reserve series … well, I’m getting to how awesome those beers can be.

While they (sadly) don’t make it anymore, the Prickly Pear Braggot was my first introduction to the series. At 10%, it knocked me on my then-novice beer geek ass, and the series has continued to be stellar ever since. The Galaxy Hopped Barleywine and Lemongrass Wheat Ale are excellent and unique, and that trend continues to Kill Devil Brown Ale.

It’s no ordinary brown ale, though. At 9.5%, the beer is brewed with palm sugar and two types of molasses, then aged in Puerto Rican rum barrels. So, a sweeter high ABV barrel-aged brown ale? Yuuup.

The pour is a mild hazy brown and copperish amber color. There’s half a finger of a really light head that doesn’t do much for lacing, but there are some very strong alcohol legs.

The rum on the nose is insane. I could smell it from a few feet away after I poured it in the glass. There’s a strong caramel and toffee note, definitely a sweetness from the molasses along with burnt sugar. That standard brown ale maltiness is present as well as big oak and vanilla notes. While the rum is overpowering, it surprisingly wasn’t boozy.

There’s a very slight hop bitterness on the front of the tongue. It’s very smooth and sweet on the palate and ends with a big punch of toffee, burnt sugar, black licorice and plums. It settles into a much sweeter note with lots of the molasses, vanilla and oak. The rum is, again, very prevalent on the finish and only slightly boozy. It’s a very malty and toasty beer with big sweet flavors.

Forgive me, Widmer Brothers, for ever doubting you. Keep putting out stuff like this and I’ll continue to wax poetic.

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September 20, 2012

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Terrapin/Shmaltz Reunion Ale 2012

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Terrapin Beer Co. – Athens, GA

Shmaltz Brewing Co. – Saratoga Springs, NY/San Francisco, CA

Reunion Ale ’12 Brown Ale

8% ABV

For the past few years, the folks Terrapin have released their annual Reunion Ale as part memorial, part fundraiser in honor of their friend Virginia MacLean. In 2007, MacLean lost her battle with Multiple Myeloma, a type of bone cancer, and every year the Athens-based brewery releases a different beer to help raise funds for the Institute of Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research.

Each year produces a different batch, with the 2009 batch being a lemon grass witbier and 2010 a Belgian-style scotch ale. In 2011, Terrapin turned Reunion Ale into a collaboration with Shmaltz to create a brown ale brewed with cocoa nibs, vanilla and chili peppers.

The 2011 batch was the perfect blend of sweet, savory and spicy. The cocoa added a dryness to balance the rich sweetness of the vanilla, and the peppers added a great kick on the end. The beer turned out to be so popular that they tweaked the recipe a bit – replacing the chili peppers with cinnamon – and re-released it for the 2012 batch. (Note: Each brewery produces its own batch, and this particular one was from Shmaltz.)

The beer pours a very dark brown verging on a black. There’s a huge foamy brownish head on top, nearly four fingers worth. For an 8 percent beer, it doesn’t leave much lacing or alcohol legs to speak of.

On the nose, the spiciness from the cinnamon is very prevalent. There’s definitely that classic bready brown ale smell but with much more of a noticeable bite. The dryness of the cocoa and the sweetness of the vanilla are also very strong. It’s kind of got a French toast quality to it. Smells pretty delicious.

The mouthfeel is very creamy. On the back of the throat, the dryness of the cocoa really shines at first. Coats the tongue in a sweet but dry taste, like eating a spoonful of cocoa powder. The cinnamon pops as it settles a little more and the finish is a mildly sweet vanilla. The flavors come in waves, with each of the main ingredients getting its own pronounced moment, and it all blends together really well.

The 2012 batch is very similar to the 2011 batch, but with more of a sweetness to it than a spiciness. The flavor profile is a perfect mix: not too dry, not too sweet, not too overpowering in any one field. The brown ale base is a good canvas for the rest of the flavors and doesn’t intrude much on the other ingredients. I can’t comment on how it compares to Terrapin’s batch – I’m assuming not much – but overall, it’s just a balanced, well-made and really enjoyable beer.

Also, it’s for a good cause. That’s reason enough to buy a bottle from each brewery.

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August 28, 2012

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Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan

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Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co.

Kiln, MS

Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale

4.65% ABV

Brown ales and I have a mixed history. I like them well enough, but for every great one like Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown or Stone TBA, you get 10 New Belgium Fat Tires. That’s not to say Fat Tire is bad by any means – it’s one of the most solid examples of the style and a great gateway beer – but standard brown ales seem pedestrian to brown ales such as the aforementioned ones, which take a solid base beer and giving it a bit more of a kick.

That’s why I was excited when a friend bequeathed to me a bottle of Lazy Magnolia‘s Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale, which is made with whole roasted pecans. I’d heard the Mississippi-made brew was one of the better year-round browns out there.

The pour is very clear for a brown. It almost looks like a kind of deep sweet tea color, very fitting for a beer made in the South. It’s very thin with half a finger of head that’s gone quickly, barely any lacing and very thin alcohol legs.

There’s definitely a sweet nuttiness on the nose. That classic malty bready nut-brown note is the base, but it’s got this almost syrupy sweet pecan pie note on top of it. Not enough to really make anything stand out, though.

There’s a very slight hop bite on the tip of the tongue followed with a surprising wash of carbonation, and the mouthfeel is fairly rich given the thinness of the beer. Taste wise, it’s unmistakably a brown, but it’s covered by that pecan taste. You get a very small bit of the roasted note on the back and it ends with a bready, sweet flavor that sits on the back of the tongue. Sadly, neither the pecan or the roasted notes stand out at all. It tastes like a standard brown with a little bit of pecan flavoring.

All of the hype didn’t end up doing this one any justice. It’s not bad by any means, but I was really hopping for a big blast of pecan flavor, which I can see complimenting a beer of this style well. (I’m a Southerner; I love me some pecans.) However, while it didn’t quite live up to the hype, I’d say it’s still one worth trying.

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July 19, 2012

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Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown

Founders Brewing Co.

Grand Rapids, MI

Frangelic Mountain Brown Ale

9% ABV

Oh, Founders. How I love you so. Not only are your year-round and seasonal beers great, but your Backstage Series really shows just how awesome you really are.

First, there was Blushing Monk, the awesome Belgian ale brewed with raspberries. Then, one of the holiest of holies, Canadian Breakfast Stout, a chocolate and coffee stout which hung out in bourbon barrels used to age maple syrup. (Side note: One of the best beers I’ve ever had. Duh.) That was followed with Curmudgeon’s Better Half, a take on your old ale brewed with molasses, aged on oak and then aged again for nearly a year in bourbon barrels also used to age maple syrup. All phenomenal, and I’m happy to welcome Frangelic Mountain Brown to the club.

The beer is, surprisingly, the brewery’s first brown ale. It’s brewed with hazelnut coffee – which I friggin’ love – and then bottled for your drinking pleasure. No fancy aging, no bourbon barrels, just a straight-up brown ale with hazelnut awesomeness.

So, why is it part of such an illustrious collection of beers? Because it’s so damn good.

The pour is – surprisingly enough – brown, but with hits of amber around the curves of the glass. Two fingers of a  creamy off-white head tops it and sticks around. Very nice lacing and alcohol legs as well.

I absolutely love anything with hazelnuts in it, so the nose on this was heavenly. There’s a huge creamy hazelnut coffee right off the bat, along with a big chocolate note. It’s a very creamy smelling. 

The taste is absolutely positively delicious. It’s a little light on the front of the tongue and has a lighter body, but the flavor explodes on the back. It doesn’t play around. It’s just straight hazelnuts and coffee. There’s a great roasted taste and a really smooth nuttiness from the hazelnut. It all settles into a surprisingly creamy chocolate taste. Just a slight hint of the alcohol, too.

While this is considered the least favorite of the series among a lot of folks, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s like receiving an A on a paper when you’ve been scoring an A+ on the three you’ve written before it. It doesn’t mean you’re bad or a disappointment at all, it just means you’re slightly less awesome than you are on a usual basis. Still, the creaminess of the hazelnuts and the roasted qualities of the coffee make this one just as superb as its predecessors.

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April 20, 2012

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Bear Republic/Fat Head’s/Stone TBA

Bear Republic Brewing Co. – Cloverdale, CA

Fat Head’s Brewery – Cleveland, OH

Stone Brewing Co. – San Diego, CA

TBA Brown Ale

7.1% ABV

Stone has been on a roll lately with their collaboration series, where they join with two other breweries across the country to craft a unique one-off beer. Stone already makes some of the best beers on the planet, but in an effort to get outside the box and create something not limited by a particular style, they’ve begun a brain trust of sorts composed of some of the county’s best and up-and-coming breweries.

So far, every beer I’ve had in the series has been a big hit. Last year’s releases included:

  • Highway 78 Scotch Ale with Green Flash and Pizza Port;
  • Japanese Green Tea IPA with Baird and Ishii, a beer the benefitted tsunami victims;
  • Cherry Chocolate Stout with Troegs and two homebrewers;
  • La Citrueille Celeste de Citricado pumpkin beer with The Bruery and Elysian. 

In 2012, they’ve produced the More Brown Than Black IPA with The Alchemist and Ninkasi to help support hurricane victims in the Northeast, and the newest entry in the series, TBA, a super-hoppy brown ale brewed with Bear Republic and Fat Head’s.

The collaboration was inspired by standard brown ale homebrew kits, usually labeled as “Texas brown ale”s. Instead of letting the biscuit and roasted qualities of most brown ales shine through, the brewers instead added brown sugar and molasses to even it out while hopping the hell out of it. (It’s a Stone brew. What else would you expect?)

The pour is, well, brown. A very deep, rich brown with hints of ruby around the edges of the glass where light shines through. There’s a huge pillowy head on the top and some mild lacing.

On the nose is a really nice blend of the roasted malts and hop bite. I got hints of pine, a subtle sweetness from the molasses and a definite hint of brown sugar. Really interesting for what is in essence a standard brown ale.

On the front of the tongue is a muted bitterness from the hops. A kind of woody maltiness comes through mid-palate accompanied by a nice wash of carbonation. The piney hop notes really comes through on the back. There’s a sort of woody note to the back as well and a nice roasted quality.

Brown ales are one of my least favorite styles. I just consider most of them bland and boring, with no real standout characteristic. But the sweeter notes on this with that great hop kick make this a great twist on the style. Another winner in the series.

Here’s the video Stone put together about it: