Federation High Level (Northumbrian) Brown Ale

Formerly brewed at Dunston (Heineken UK)
Style: Brown Ale
Gateshead, England

Serve in Dimpled mug

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UPDATED: AUG 30, 2005 "Northumbrian" in the 11.2 oz. bottle - This poured a nutty brown with reddish highlights, sporting a modest white head that soon "haloed’ the glass. It’s got a mild, caramel aroma and tastes pretty much as it smells. Finishes on a slightly tart, crisp note. Not a bad brown, but not very exciting, either.

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This beer is both not that good and excellent. Not terribly interesting and some flat flavors, yet at the same time it has a nice sweetish flavor. But it is so so drinkable. It is one of those I’m not sure I like this but I love drinking it kind of beers if that makes any sense. Serving: Bottle

Bronze and clear. Pleasant aroma and slightly nutty flavour. Some bitterness with a bit of maltiness. Quite a reasonable brown ale despite being brewed by Scotish Corage.

Pours a nice clear copper/brown, about an inch of head. The head dies back to less than a quarter inch. Minimal lacing. Bready aroma is nice, but not much else going on. Sweet malty taste, a little bready, a little molasses. But mainly just sweet. A little too sweet for me. Very little hop presence. Thinner body than I expected, and a not-quite but almost medium level of carbonation.

Bottled, pasteurised, 500ml. Chestnut coloured with short lasting head. Thinnish slightly sweet beer with a medicinal, pine type background, a little like a cleaning product. The flavour turns a little nutty through warming, but nothing too pleasant. I’m never sure what the Geordies see in these Brown Ales, not for me.

Weak, thin, pallid, and altogether unimpressive. Or maybe, just maybe, Browns don’t speak my language!

(Northumbrian) "Medium" brown colored beer with an average head. Smokiness abounds: from aromas to flavor... similar to a recently-doused campfire, but tastier... and a little less dangerous. "Wet" mouthfeel with a slightly sour aftertaste.

Thanks to Ben, as this was in his fridge when I was house-sitting.

Bottle (part of a Federation selection pack). Amber red. Malty aromas with banana skins and raisins. Sweet caramel but thin without complexity. Drinkable but as with other Federation products I have tried a sharp contrast between aromas and insipid taste.

nice packaging and a pretty pour the color of real maple syrup, though very clear. an aggressive decanting would produce only a svelte little head, the color of sliced banana. aroma is red plum, mars bar, almond taffy-- and also strangely like a page of glossy printing, a magazine cover perhaps. all of that is the easy part because taking a sip is about as rewarding as dropping the bottle on your bare foot. i believe i emitted an involuntary shriek or something because my dog looked up suddenly in alarm. YOW! the beer is recklessly sweet --without a license, cause or mitigating circumstance. it’s literally sugary-- cream soda, dull praline, call it what you will-- but my first ’crying game’ impulse was to backhand the beer for it’s deceit. even so, i drank it all-- in slightly diminishing disdain-- and to it’s credit some grapefruit tones emerged to suggest a nod of balancing hops. but too little, too late. it finished watery and still disturbingly sweet-- way too much akin to a soft drink.

Dark amber/ brown in color, clear, creamy tan generous head. Aroma: metallic, piney, medicinal, with a hint of nuts and butter. Light body, thin palate, sickly twang in the finish. I guess this could stand in as an inoffensive "session ale", except that I can’t imagine why you would want more than one of these sorry bastards. It’s an 18.6oz. bottle, and I’m bored less than 1/2 way through. That’s the point, though, something to slug down in between turns at darts. At the end of the bottle, those initial off-flavors had disappeared and the beer became more mellow, the finish more pleasant, and I didn’t hate it quite as much. Didn’t like it any better, though.