Dogfish Head Brown Ale

I picked up a case of Dogfish Head Brown Ale. I was kind of in a hurry to get something, I usually spend a few minutes perusing the selection, seeing what I feel like. I am pretty much a sucker for anything that Dogfish Head makes, as I've been very impressed with everything I've tried from them to date. I'd just finished a Variety case of Smuttynose that included a Brown Ale, and was interested in seeing Dogfish Head's take on this beer style.

Well... when I first poured it I thought I'd made a bad choice. This beer poured exactly like a porter would. Not what I was hoping for. Very dark, very "porterish" color, bubbly dark head, and the smell was unmistakable. The Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale was a deep red color, and had none of the porterish aroma. I had a couple last night, and found it to be OK. Yeah, just OK.

So I pop open a bottle tonight, and I have a different impression right from the start. There's more ale to this beer, than there is porter, so I was relieved. It definitely seems to ride right between an ale and a porter. So what was it trying to be?

So after some Googling, the history of the brown ale made it clear. Brown Ales were first started in England in the 1600s. They used to make their beers by reusing the wort made from a boil of smoked barley, which would of course, "dilute" the beer each time. The first two brews would be a stout and a porter. The next ones would be brown ales. Made sense to me!

So this beer is quite drinkable, which I don't usually associate with porters and stouts (though I find Guinness VERY drinkable - though for some, undrinkable...). Very easy on the tongue for a dark beer, not too sweet, not too heavy. Whatever they did, they did it well.

My score for this beer is an 89.

Cheers,
PJ