When fall rolls around two beer styles get an inordinate amount of attention; Oktoberfest/marzens (yum) and pumpkin beers (hard pass for me, but to each their own). I think there are a few other styles that are perfect for fall weather but get overlooked. One of the tops on my list is brown ales. Once […]
Tag: Brown Ale
Mayflower Hometown Brown
My opinions of brown ales has come full circle. When I first started drinking craft beers the smooth, slightly sweet and approachable brown ales were one of the first styles I gravitated to. As my tastes evolved and bold, hop-bomb IPAs became new beers of choice I dismissed brown ales as one-note. I’ve come back around recently, while they still are not […]
Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2016 Part 1
Last year Sierra Nevada launched Beer Camp, a series of beer festivals in different cities across the country. As part of this celebration they brewed 12 collaboration beers each one with a different brewer in a Beer Camp host city. The 12 beers were sold as a 12-pack, which sold out incredibly quickly around here so I […]
Down The Road Hooligan Nut Brown
Between getting older, drinking less and lack of sleep (the final two directly related to the birth of my son) I have become kind of a lightweight with respect to my alcohol tolerance. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and really doesn’t effect me very often, I just have to be more careful monitoring my intake, […]
Foley Brothers Maple Brown
A couple weeks ago I expressed some frustration in the lack of style diversity when breweries introduce their product to a new market. It seemed like every brewer leads off with their IPA or some IPA variant. I understand the popularity of the style but it leads to a saturation of IPAs and a lack […]
The Shed Profanity Ale
There is a lot of talk recently about mergers and acquisitions involving major players in the beer market. Some of the most popular independent brewers in the US have sold parts of their companies to large international conglomerates. While there are obvious pros and cons to these types of deals (which I will get into […]
Slumbrew Attic and Eaves
I mentioned at the beginning of the fall that I had a little hop burn-out. I love IPAs but I needed a little break from the big bitter beers. While I’ve still sampled the occasional hop-bomb, my focus this fall has been on malt forward lagers along with a few ales. One style that catches a […]
Long Trail Harvest Barn Ale
This weekend I did a bit of a stock up run at Craft Beer Cellar in Newton, and I noticed that many breweries were swapping out their fall seasonals for winter beers. This is actually reasonable, November is close enough to winter to justify starting this transition, this is nothing like pumpkin beers showing up on store shelves […]
Smuttynose Durty Brown Ale
With the explosion in popularity of craft beer, many established craft brewers face a unique challenge. There is competition for shelf space at stores and tap lines in bars, so they need to balance making their longstanding and traditional beers while also continuing to be exciting and innovative. Smuttynose Brewery in Portsmouth, NH has long been known for their canonical brews […]