Make My Ale a BROWN ALE...Jun 13 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line With their light body and smooth, malty flavor, I think brown ales just might be the perfect summertime beer style. Here's why...
When folks think about light, drinkable summertime beers, they are almost always talking about styles like wheat beers, blonde ales, or maybe even kolsch. What they don't usually mention is brown ale, and that really seems a shame to me since the style's lighter body makes for a heck of a refreshing drink, plus the soft malty palate with a hint of toast or nutty flavor is a great pick-me-up. Why don't breweries put out more brown ales at this time of year? Maybe brewers think that darker colored beers can't be light bodied and refreshing (more likely the brewers think that's what consumers think...) Maybe brown ales aren't viewed as "trendy" or "popular" styles... What a shame! In my opinion, people who like some flavor in their beers but who also enjoy lighter bodied beers on a warm, sunny day would be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable light quaffing beer than a nice tall cool glass of brown ale. But what kind of brown ale is best? What brands should a consumer look for? Relax. No hay problema. Here's a little info on the kinds of brown ale that you might find in beer retailers or brewpubs, and a few recommendations for brands worth seeking out. Now How Brown? The first thing I want to mention is that "brown ale" can mean slightly different things, depending on what brand you're thinking about. There's really two significant variations: the classic English style (also known as "nut brown ale" to some beer drinkers) and the upstart American-style brown ale. (There's also something called a "mild", and I'll touch on that later since you really find it only in England or in a few brewpubs in the United States.) Let's talk about the classic English brown ales first, since those are really the beers with tradition behind them and they are the beers that are the classic examples of the style (not to mention being some of the most refreshing brews out there when you get a good fresh glass). English Brown Ales Newcastle Brown is unquestionably the most popular brand in this style and it is the classic example of what a brown ale should be. A fresh glass of Newcastle is a thing of beauty. It's a light brown color with brilliant clarity and it has a very nice soft malty flavor with a little bit of toast and nut and just the slightest dryness to balance. A classic brown ale will be very light in body and low in alcohol, generally starting life at only about 10-11 degrees Plato (Newcastle is about a 1040 beer). The flavor will be almost completely lightly toasted malt with perhaps a slight caramel hint. Everyone refers to this flavor profile as "nutty" even if the brand in question isn't calling itself "nut brown". A lot of beer drinkers prefer the maltier, somewhat sweeter and more intense flavor of Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale -- another classic example of a great brown ale. Samuel Smith brews their brown to a higher starting gravity (12 Plato, 1048) than does Newcastle. Even though brown ales are not hoppy beers by any stretch of the imagination, they still have more hops than your typical U.S. pale lager would. Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale is brewed to a hopping level of 34 IBU. For summer thirst quenching, it's hard to beat either of these beers, and I could easily spend an entire afternoon out on the porch of a great pub like Houston's Ginger Man, slowly working my way through a few pints of fresh Newcastle. The only problem I have with recommending Newcastle or Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale to U.S. buyers is that these are both very easy beers to abuse, and skunked bottles are more common than liquor store clerks whose knowledge of beer extends only as far as the latest Bud commercial. I usually drink Newcastle only on draft. Yes, these beers are available in bottles just about everywhere, but the problem with both Newcastle and Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale is that they are sold in clear glass bottles. Few retailers in the United States handle their beers properly, and Newcastle and Samuel Smiths Nut Brown are both fragile beers that demand cool dark storage to remain fresh. Both beers often develop a skunk-like aroma in the bottles which markedly detracts from their very clean soft flavor. Brewers and beer geeks refer to this as being "light struck" -- it is a reaction of hops to light. In technical terms, the isomerized alpha acids react with ultraviolet light at a wavelength of roughly 400 to 500nm, freeing sulfur radicals that team up with hydrogen to produce something called prenyl mercaptan. What's happening chemically isn't important to you or I, what is important is to know that this reaction happens in all beers that are brewed with real hops and which are packaged in clear (or green) bottles. If you must buy bottles, try to look for a case in a walk-in cooler -- chances are pretty good that you'll get the freshest bottles possible. As a footnote to this discussion of classic brown ales I feel a moral duty to at least mention that there does exist a variation that's more sweet than it is nutty -- this is sometimes called "southern English brown", but it is really of only academic interest to purists since it really only applies to a single beer, and one that is neither exported nor widely sold even in its own local market. (The beer is Mann's Brown Ale, once a Watneys brand but now produced by Ushers of Trowbridge in Wiltshire -- the beer is light in body but surprisingly malty tasting for a 3 percent alcohol brew). Let's move on to how the style is interpreted by American craft brewers... American Brown Ales Whenever American brewers tackle traditional English styles they almost always brew the beers bigger and bolder than is common in England. At first glance that may seem odd, since the Americans are often brewing the beers closer to their historical strength than do English brewers. The reason seems to stem from a trend in English brewing towards progressively weaker beers, driven largely by taxation policies that penalize big beers. Of course there are plenty of big English beers, but normal everyday styles found in pubs are not as strong as normal everyday American beers (and yes, I'm taking into account the fact that Americans and British brewers measure alcohol levels differently -- I'm talking mostly about starting gravity). The distinction between American and English brown ales is a relatively recent development. Up until a decade or so ago, nobody would have talked about "American" brown ales. It just wasn't important. Pete's Wicked Ale is usually regarded as the original American brown ale, although homebrewers claim that the style really originates with the Houston Foam Rangers homebrew club who first started making a distinction between lighter bodied and lighter colored nutty brown ales and the bigger, bolder, maltier, heavier, sweeter, sometimes hoppier variations that homebrewers were coming up with. The first major commercial brand in this style is generally acknowledged to be Pete's Wicked Ale (Pete Slosberg was a California homebrewer who won kudos for his big malty brown ales, turned professional when he started contract-brewing his "wicked" ales, and managed to snare himself a Gold medal in the Great American Beer Festival). One of today's classic American brown ales is the firm, sweet, malty Brookly Brown Ale, sold mostly on the east coast. This is a wonderful beer, and the flagship brand of the Brooklyn Brewery. It is brewed to a gravity of about 14 degrees Plato (1055 OG) and has more of a chocolate malt signature than brown ales that model themselves on the English classics. It is also hopped with Northern Brewer and Cascade, which brings me to an important difference between American and English style brown ales -- the hops. American browns are often hoppier, and may be drier than their English counterparts. If you really want to understand the difference between an English brown and an American brown, try this little experiment. Pick up a bottle of a Newcastle and a bottle of Petes Wicked Ale. Let them warm to about 50 degrees, then sample them side-by-side. I think you'll agree that Pete's is bigger, darker, hoppier and more satisfying, while Newcastle is softer, nuttier tasting, and more refreshing. Both kinds of brown ale can be wonderful experiences, it's just a question of what you want from your beer at the moment. If you're lucky enough to be enjoying your summer in England, you also have another important variation on the brown ale theme that could very well be your best option of all -- the mild ale. Mild Ale Getting a good handle on what a mild should be will be a tough exercise for most Americans because the classic examples are draught beers sold only in England. If you happen to be in a good pub, look to see what is on the beer engines. Some of the better-known brands include Bateman's Dark Mild, Highgate Mild, Banks Mild, or maybe Brains Dark if you're around Wales. Two years ago (August 2000) the professional judging panel at the Great British Beer Festival surprised beer drinkers by naming Moorhouse Black Cat -- a mild ale -- as Champion Beer of Britain -- the most prestigious award in the brewing industry. My personal favorite mild ale is Sara Hughes Ruby Red Mild -- a deeply complex malty beer that's much stronger (about 6 percent) than just about any other brown ale on the market. A few U.S. brewpubs make mild ales regularly, but bottled milds are generally impossible to find. Of course there are exceptions. I've heard that you can buy bottles of New Knoxville Mild if you happen to live in Tennessee, but the limited distribution of this beer makes it the exception that proves the rule. If I were looking for a mild in the U.S., I'd probably concentrate on brewpubs with very strong English traditions, namely, places like Yards in Philadelphia, Wharf Rat in Baltimore, or Sherlocks Home in Minneapolis. Whoa! I've been rambling on about where to buy milds but haven't even talked about what they are! Mild ale is a very light bodied brown ale -- these traditionally have starting gravities in the range of 8 or 9 degrees Plato (1032-1036) with alcohol levels around 2.5 to 3.5 percent. They are beers that are weak enough to drink all day long, but that still have a light brown color and as much malt flavor as is technically possible to put in such a watery beer. (With a couple of exceptions, like the Sara Hughes Ruby Red Mild that I mentioned earlier). According to Roger Protz (in All About Beer magazine), one of the best U.S. milds is Nuptial Ale, available in Maine from Gritty McDuffs. A Few Recommendations for American Beer Drinkers These are some brands I recommend trying (most mentioned in this review), along with regional availability). Enjoy! Newcastle Brown (English brown, everywere in U.S.) Samuel Smiths Nut Brown Ale (English brown, everywhere in U.S.) Pete's Wicked Ale (American brown, everywhere in U.S.) Brooklyn Brown (American brown, New York, mid-Atlantic and northeast) St. Arnold's Brown Ale (American brown, Texas) Bell's Best Brown (American brown, Michigan, mid-west) Sweet Georgia Brown (American brown, Georgia) Nuptial Ale (mild ale, Maine) New Knoxville Mild (mild ale, Tennessee) Hope you all enjoyed this little trip to the brown side. Until next time, see you at the pub!  |
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