Samuel Adams Brown Ale

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Brown Ale
Boston, Massachusetts USA

I really like this beer, though brown ales seem to not be that popular in general. It’s smooth and malty, not a brewing masterpiece, but very drinkable and not lacking in flavor. I still buy this from time to time.

Cloudy brown and red is the pour. Minimal tan-ish/yellow head. Smells of caramel cream, and slightly roasted honey oat bread malts. Tastes of light roasted caramel, crisp hops, and almost a nutty almond undertone. Has a refreshing drinkability to it.

Mainly Caramel aroma. Flavor is a lot of caramel, with a dry somewhat watery finish. It starts out well, but finishes uninspiring. I do notice some hops in the finish, but I also notice a watery carbonated flavor overwhelming the beer. It’s not terrible, just nothing to get over excited about.

Bottle. Poured nicely enough with a decent head and from looking at the color, I thought this was gonna be a good beer. It didn’t get any better from there. Tasted like lots of other beers that I have had so nothing unusual about it. Just an average beer.

Bottle from Party Source. Poured a clear dark brown color with a moderate frothy off-white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Medium toasted nutty malty aroma. Medium body. Medium bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. I would recommend this to a freind as the first choice of domestic production brews.

I think the defining characteristic of this ale is the complexity of the flavor. There are many noticeable ingredients mixed in, of which the caramel and toasted malts are the strongest. Not too many hops, which results in not much of an aftertaste.

22-May-07 (12 oz bottle: BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Pleasant but not interesting or inspiring aromas of toasty malts, dry leaves and wood. This same profile carries over into the flavor: it’s minimally sweet, malty, and very woody with a slightly bready and cardboardy finish. No hops and bitterness is very light. Medium-bodied with a medium carbonation level and dry mouthfeel into the finish. Amber-brown and fairly clear. Small, light-tan head fades away quickly to a ring, leaving a few spots of lace. Very generic for a brown ale, which is another way of saying, this is an extremely dull and uninspired beer for a Brewmaster’s Collection.

Bottle. Clear brown color with a medium beige head. Malty aroma with toast, nuts, hints of chocolate and a touch of hops. Sweetish flavor of malt, caramel and nuts with some later notes of hops. Medium-bodied, but a bit watery. Quite enjoyable.