Ellie’s Brown Ale
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(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...I came to the realization tonight that a brown ale is can be very much like a porter that ran away to join the circus.
Porter has long been my favorite style, but this Beer A Day challenge has led me to discover that I really enjoy brown ales, too. Until this year, the only brown ale in my vocabulary was Newcastle – which I’ve always found sweet, light, and unexciting. But I’ve had a few robust and tasty browns over the past two and a half months, and my opinion of brown ale has undergone a strong change. It took Ellie’s Brown Ale to help me understand why I might like browns so much.
Ellie’s Brown Ale, from Avery Brewing Company, is very dark and quite rich. In the glass, the beer has a dark reddish-brown color and emanates a low, sugary, roasted malt aroma. Malt overwhelmed my first sip, the taste of sugar and molasses — plus some chocolate and sweet raisins — but as I swallowed, the mellow flavor of a a lightly roasted malt washed over everything.
That smokey taste and some light hops flipped a switch in my head — and once I started thinking of porter, the similarities clicked home. So I did a little research and discovered that the porter style was actually inspired by brown ale. That means my initial assessment was wrong — instead of brown ales being like porters living life on the wild side, it’s more like porters are the straight-laced children of sweet, hippie brown ales.
Ellie’s is named after Brewmaster Adam Avery’s late Chocolate Lab. The website reads:
Crystal and chocolate malts give this beer a brown sugar maltiness with hints of vanilla and nuts, while subtle hopping gives it an overall drinkability that’s second to none, just like Ellie!
Ellie’s Brown is definitely easy going and enjoyable — sweet without being cloying, roasted without charcoal domination, and light-bodied enough to go down smoothly. The brown has a 5.5% ABV and just 17 IBUs — which, when combined with the rich taste and medium body, make this a great session ale.
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