King Crown Brown Ale

Formerly brewed at King Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Pontiac, Michigan USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

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Bottle... First impression was not good. My bottle was way overcarbonated. It took me thirty minutes just to pour myself a glass. Other than that, I enjoyed every sip of this textbook brown ale. Opaque, dark brown with a large, frothy, khaki head. Very good retention. The nose is floral and malty with all the nutty, chocolatey characteristics associated with the style. Rich, malty flavor (but decently balanced) with lots of chocolate, toasted nuts and toffee. Just enough bittering to keep it from being cloyingly sweet. Medium-bodied and very creamy with mild carbonation. Chocolatey, roasty finish. Fine brown ale.

Bottle from Belo Vino. Poured a clear dark brown color with a moderate frothy off-white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Medium sweet toasted malty aroma. Medium body. Medium bittersweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. Drinkable brew.

Off-yellow head covers the clear deep chestnut body. Nutty, roasted malts, hazelnutty dry nose with less hops than expected and darker malts. A slight acid bite seems out of palce in mouth, though the global balance seems okay. Oily nature, lots of bark-like woodiness, dry nutty linear evolution. Light bodied, oily, comfortable carbonation.

Meaty, flat aroma. Dark mahogany brown with low but lasting off-white head that leaves some sudsy lacing. Light brown malt flavour is a touch grainy. Light body with fair carbonation. Perhaps a bit watery. Sampled at the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Fest 2005.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured almost no head with just a few medium sized clear colored bubbles that were quickly diminishing and left behind a transparent almost uncarbonated brown colored body and thin oily lacing. The aroma was malty with mild brown malt and sweet notes. The semi-flat mouth feel was weakly tingly at the start and mediumly tingly at the finish. The flavor contained notes of sweet malt sweet and brown malt. Not one that I would likely buy again.

Bottle: Dark brown, thin cream colored head, foamy, spotty lacing.   Somewhat musty nose, light malts, very light sweetness.   Pale roasted malts on the tongue, slightly nutty, milk sugar like sweetness is soft.   Moderate body and mouthfeel, somewhat creamy in texture.   Clean finish, very light sweet roasted malts, with accents of lactose and coffee.   Light example, goes down easy thats for sure.   Thanks SuIIy for the bottle!

Bottle: Light watery chocolate aroma. Pours a transparent brown with red hilights. Off-white head with nice lacing. Light malt up front with a light chocolate finish. A somewhat citrusy taste is slightly noticeable in the finish.

Bottle. Very small tan head that mostly diminished, no lacing, visible carbonation, transparent, and a reddish brown hue. Nose was malty, chocolate, nutty, and mildly roasty. Flavor was malty, chocolate, roasty, semi-sweet and thin. Tingly, thin mouthfeel. Light body. Very quaffable, almost too easy to drink. Decent, but most probably will not seek out again as there are better ones out there of this style.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained 06-Mar-06 in trade with Sully, thanks Mike!) While I’m not wild about the way this beer smells, the flavor isn’t bad. Chocolaty, lightly roasty, and only mildly sweet and bitter, the beer has a pleasant flavor but isn’t especially generous with sharing it. These elements are also present in the nose, but there is a bit of "stinky feet" that’s distracting me. Pretty decent mouthfeel for a brown ale: medium bodied from start to finish, average carbonation, maybe even a slight creaminess in the finish. Dark ruddy-brown in color, a bit darker than mahogany, with only slight transparency. The light-tan head is slow to form on the pour, lazily building to a quarter inch, and then fully dissipating after awhile. Nothing spectacular here, even within the brown ale category, and it’s quite uneventful, but the chocolate flavor is pleasant enough.

Deep red-brown body, thin off-white/buff head. Milk chocolate, toasty aroma. Toasty, chocolatey body with light hints of smoke and roasted nuts. Earthy finish. A little bit of "swishing" reveals vinous notes, with slightly tart grapeskin joining the fray. There’s really nothing to fault here; in my experience, King’s beers are mostly spot-on to style. The gap between King and excellence is creativity. They have a shot.