Empire Downtown Brown

Brewed by Empire Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Syracuse, New York USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

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Part of a sampler at brewpub. I found all the brews to be better than average though I don’t remember specifics for most of them. It is worth mentioning that the sampler here is very generous with glasses that are big enough to really give you enough to form an opinion.

Ob tap at the brewpub w Ronnee. Medium to dark brown pour, nothing out of the ordinary. Nose is nutty and a little coffee. Palate is loaded w vanilla bean and hazelnut. Some hop bitterness and a hint of roasted coffee. Enjoyed.

Draft. Pours amber brown with a beige head. Sweet malty aroma with notes of coffee. The flavor has coffee, roasted malts, and sweet toffee. Pretty good.

On Tap at the Brew Pub. A translucent brown pour. Aroma of roasted malts. Flavor of roasted malts with nuts and some sweetness. The alcohol was hidden well. (or maybe I had too much by now and did not notice) Decent

Brown with a decent head. Has a roasted, slight earth hop aroma. Flavor has a deeper roasted malt note, light chocolate, some oak, toffee, and light herbal hops. A decent brown that went down easy.

On tap @ Ithaca BrewFest Amber brown with a bit of white head. Aroma is mostly malty, caramel, bit of coffee, hint of hops. Somewhat bitter, medium to lighter bodied, hops come out more on the palate.

Cask at Pony Bar. Cloudy brown pour with a thick sticky tan head. The aroma is lightly toffeeish with a kiss of cold coffee as well. The coffee character is really quite pronounced and as it warms it sticks around. Lightly hoppy with a fairly assertive bitterness on the back of the palate that works pretty well. A fairly complex malt bill… toffee and brown malt with a touch of herbal cocoa sweetness, but it is well balanced by the hops. Lingering herbal/hoppy finish. For a style that I’m not typically a fan of, I enjoyed this a lot.

Sampled at the brewpub. AU15/08.

App.: Medium ruby, clear, remnants of a light tan head. Aroma: Nice burnt sugar and light molasses, hints of warm spices, coffee, treacle, slightly nutty, somewhat fruity, a bit of alcohol. Palate: Medium-ish body and fairly soft carbonation. Flav.: Much like the nose, full and lovely; dry with a nice amount of bitterness.

I really enjoyed this.

In short: An “Amber” Ale calling itself a Brown ale. Basic caramel, a little woody and slightly fruity. Boring
How: Tap at brewpub
The look: Clear redish-amber body topped by an beige ring of foam
In long: Kind of a more caramelized version of their Amber ale. Just caramel and some woody notes. Not very nutty or anything except maybe a distant hazelnut flavour. Something strange in the hopping as I got some unexpected fruity note in the come-back (strawberries and such). Short but sharp astringency in the finish. I actually preferred the lighter Amber ale, this one was more tasty but the flavours were just like a bunch of overpaid baseball players, they were not working together and trying to steal the spotlight from each other.

A golden brown ale with a thin off white head. In aroma, caramel, nuts and chocolate. In mouth, bitter chocolate and coffee, with no sweetness, very dry. A bizarre porter like brown ale. Good. On tap at Empire, Nov. 17 2007.