Brooklyn Brown Ale

Brewed by Brooklyn Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Brooklyn, New York USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

Quite delicious. The first positive surprise is the fine hoppy aroma. lightly toasty.

From a bottle poured brown with a fair amount of head. Sweet malty flavor with light bitter finish.

Yummy! I bought this on a whim at one of the dumpier "deli" grocery stores near Broadway and 125th. Yes, I live in New York now. I’ll definitely buy this one again, because it hit the spot on a cold night. I want to quit graduate school.

Draft: Pours a dark chocolate brown color with a small beige head. Nose is softly roast with a light bittersweet cocoa element. Tastes full of roast with more cocoa, light bitters, toffee, and a faint nuttiness. Rather rich and smooth. Pretty damn nice.

Pours amber brown with a tan head. Aroma is toffee, roasted malts, and coffee. Flavor is caramel, with hints of dark fruit, chocolate, and sweet malts. Not bad.

My favorite beer of all time is Newcastle Brown Ale, and as much as I like the brown ale style, I’ve yet to find an American counterpart that can compare. Brooklyn Brown Ale comes remotely close with a sweet, crisp taste, but I think it could have been even better.

POUR, COLOR AND AROMA

Right out of the bottle Brooklyn Brown Ale pours extremely smooth without the slightest kickback. It forms a tan, fizzy head which is a little less than average in size and fizzles away quickly like a glass of soda. It also appears highly carbonated at first, but I noticed it flatted out as it sat.

The body is more of a blood red color than a proper brown, although dark copper might be a more apt description. The scent is overall quite sweet and malty, but there isn’t a very distinctive aroma, just the slightest notion of toasted malts.

TASTE

I like my brown ales to either be very sweet or very robust. Brooklyn Brown Ale seems to fall somewhere in between. It definitely has a sweet, malty palate but with a hint of bitter, smokiness to the taste. The label indicates notes of chocolate and coffee, which I detected, but they were quite mild.

In fact, what keeps this beer from being outstanding instead of just plain good is the taste is a little too mild. Although it’s typical for brown ales to have this characteristic, Brooklyn probably could’ve been even stronger-tasting.

FINISH

The good thing about a mild beer is its drinkability and Brooklyn Brown Ale is extremely smooth. Although there definitely are some noticeable hops to the palate, it goes down like a glass of flat soda.

BODY

I have no problems with a full-bodied beer as long as it’s proportional to its style. I might almost accuse Brooklyn Brown Ale of being a little overweight because it’s not quite as dark of a beer as its name implies. For a beer with 5.6% ABV and probably upwards of 200 calories (information wasn’t available on the brewer’s website), I’d like just a little more taste to go with the body.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Since Brooklyn states right on the label that this beer is intended to be different from its English forebears, I cannot criticize it for its differences. It does stand on its own as a quality niche product from a microbrewery, as it tastes good and finishes clean.

NOTE: watch the video version of this review at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d14OKFC-oy4

22-JAN-2010, bottle with Ulkløbben @Morten. Light brown, brown head. Lovely nose. Brown sugar. Fine creaminess. Some hops makes it a fine brown ale.

On Tap - The pour is dark brown with a thin white head. Aroma is full of dark malts, chocolate and some roasted nuts. It’s flavor is balanced with hops and dark malts. The chocolate characters blended with the nuttiness and moderate carbonation make this a great session beer that is pretty tasty.