Werecat

Werecat, from Toronto’s Blood Brothers Brewing, is a barrel-aged sour brown ale. The beer, which comes in 500mL bottles with spooky and gorgeous labels, weighs in at a robust 8.7%. It’s a dark brown ale with ruddy highlights, and it pours with a fast-receding off-white head.

Werecat has tart, winey aromatics, buttressed with woody sweetness. The flavour incorporates notes of molasses and muscovado sugar, tart cherries, wood, and booze.

This was an extremely enjoyable ale. I think that brown ales barrel age very well generally, and this one was executed nicely. And the sour elements were deftly balanced—present and pleasant, but not overpowering.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Harlequin Brown Ale

 Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery is the source of Harlequin Brown Ale, a 5.5% brown sold in 473mL cans. The beer is brewed with Harlequin hops which provide, according to the copy, “a shot of tropical fruit flavours and aromas”. The burnished copper ale pours with a lasting layer of beige suds.

To my schnoz, the beer has roasted malt, iron, bread, and burnt sugar aromatics. The flavour kicks of maltily and drifts hopward, touching on metallic, nutty, and piney. Despite the paragraph on the can, I can’t say I picked up on tropical fruit elements, though. The only new world hop note I really picked out was in the evergreen bitterness of the finish.

Harlequin Brown Ale is an enjoyable American-style brown. Although I didn’t personally detect any tropical aromas/flavours, that doesn’t mean they aren’t there, and it doesn’t really matter, since the beer tastes quite good.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Flight HBC 472

 Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery is the source of Flight HBC 472, an American Brown Ale. The beer contains 5.8% and comes in 473mL cans with a boarding pass theme. It’s an attractive mahogany ale that pours with a thin disc of creamy head.

HBC 472 has a hearty roasted malt aroma, accented with brown sugar. The flavour runs from slightly sweet to fairly hoppy, and it touches on caramel, molasses, and burnt toast. The beer starts creamily, but builds to a bitter finish.

This isn’t the best brown ale I’ve had, but it has some very good attributes and I’d gladly buy it again. I’d have liked a richer bitterness and a bit more booze, but I definitely enjoyed the roasty toasty quality.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Bajus Brown Ale

 Brown ale! Criminally under-represented in Ontario’s brewing scene. I was fired up when I saw that Stone City Ales offered a brown—the 5.5% Bajus Brown Ale. It comes in stark 500mL bottles, from which emerges a handsome amber liquid. Through its durable, creamy head comes a malty aroma highlighted with bready and caramel-tinged notes. The flavour is cozy and malt-driven. It’s toasty and mellow at the outset, with brown sugar and caramel, and it gives way to a mild metallic bitterness.

Mild-mannered, but with some depth, Bajus is a solid little brown ale. It has excellent strength, too. I’d have liked a bit more of an explosive hop finish, but that’s about it for critiques.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Into the Woods

Christmas Day afternoon drinking calls for brown ale—this time Into the Woods from Fredericton, NB’s Graystone Brewing. ITW is a 5% ale sold in 473mL cans that have a pretty river scene on them.

ITW is a clear copper ale. It pours with a short-lived off-white head and has a metallic and roasted malt nose. Those notes are mirrored in the flavour, along with molasses and some breadiness. The back end sees nuttiness enter the equation, along with some coffee-tinted bitterness.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t love this beer when I first cracked it—I found the aromatics to be a touch too sweet and coppery, and that put me in a bad headspace. However, as I got to tasting it and found the sweetness to be largely confined to the front end, my enthusiasm grew considerably. By the end, I was pretty satisfied.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Vanilla Orchid Brown Ale

Another beer from the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, brewed at Henderson Brewing Co. in Toronto, is their Vanilla Orchid Brown Ale, a 5% ale sold in 473mL cans. The beer is “steeped with oats and vanilla orchid roobios tea.” It’s a copper coloured ale and it pours with a modest blanket of creamy head.

The VOBA has really soft, floral aromatics with definite tea notes that’s a bit fruity and quite sweet. The flavour has notes of herbal tea, floral perfume, sticky toffee, blueberries, and vanilla over top of a subtle, malty base. The back end has delicate but undeniable tannin bitterness, but not a lot of hop character. From end to end, this beer possesses a mellow and fascinating profile. The only significant substantive knock against this little potion is that it is a touch too floral/sweet to crack a second in a sitting.

If you tune in to the Bitter World from time to time, you might notice that one of my common refrains is that Ontario could use more brown ales. Admittedly, when I have made that observation in the past, I was typically referring to the classic, traditional style. However, the SOBDL/Henderson’s Vanilla Orchid Brown Ale has opened my eyes to an interesting variation on the classic theme and I’d be open to more. So now my cry is “more traditional brown ales and brown ale variants!”

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Old Buddy Espresso Brown Ale

Sold in extremely spiffy 473mL cans, Old Buddy Espresso Brown Ale comes from Wellington Brewery in Guelph, Ontario. The beer is made with espresso reduction and using oats and brewed up to 5.4% alcohol.

Old Buddy is a very dark brown and it pours with a short-lived tan head that shrunk rapidly to a disc of suds. The beer has a potent, coffee-fueled nose buttressed by a bit of spice. The flavour is robust, built around sturdy espresso notes and fitted comfortably into a malty, brown ale body. The back end is agreeably bitter, with persistent java vibes and a whisper of spice.

To me, brown ales and coffee are born partners, and Wellington’s Old Buddy worked the combo professionally. This is a tasty beer with loads of flavour, decent strength, and quality execution. I’d enthusiastically buy this beer again; however, I wouldn’t drink more than one in an evening.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Duque Americano

After a lengthy climb up a seemingly never ending series of flights of stairs, the Bitter Wife and I arrived, sweaty and thirsty, at the Cervejaria Artesanal Duque. A small brewpub and craft beer bar, the Duque only had five of their own beers on tap, as well as a curated selection of other Portuguese taps and bottles. Shout out to the music selection—we arrived to a punk Johnny Cash cover and heard Frank Zappa, Radiohead, and Tom Waits during our stay.

For my first pint, I opted for a pour of Duque Americano, their take on an American Brown Ale. My 5% (according to the Untappd listing) brew arrived stout-dark and crowned with a thin but persistent cream head. The beer had a velvety molasses and malt aroma. The flavour was pretty robust, with roasted malt lording over the front and and a sizable bitter presence brings up the rear. Flavour notes were primarily sticky molasses, backed with espresso and a touch of sappy bitterness.

A fine offering from a small and charming beer joint, Duque Americano got the brown ale job done admirably. Totally worth climbing all those steps (Bitter Wife likely doesn’t agree).

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

The Brown Note

According to the copy, The Brown Note is “the brown ale to end all brown ales.” Further, the 16oz can decries: “Enjoy it,  because there’s no longer any reason to drink another brown ale.” Some seriously strong language from Louisville, Kentucky’s Against the Grain Brewery. I’m note so sure about their boasts, but I am confident that the poop motif makes these the most disgusting beer cans I’ve ever seen.

The 5% alcohol Brown Note is, nasty can notwithstanding, a handsome beer. It has a lovely dark brown colour and pours with a nice layer of cream head. The ale has a malty nose with nutty notes and a touch of toffee sweetness. The flavour has a sweet malt to hops progression with an emphasis on the former. There are nut, copper, and leather notes en route, and the finish, while not a hop bomb, does feature a pretty decent degree of hops balance.

I can’t imagine that I’ll be swearing off other brown ales, but I will give AtG some credit—The Brown Note is a damned tasty brew.

Many thanks to my l’il brudder for bringing me a can.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Capt. Craig

Capt. Craig is a brown ale out of Petit-Paquetville, New Brunswick. This 5.5% alcohol 28 IBU beer comes from Distillerie Fils du Roy. It’s sold, corked and caged, in 750mL bottles that feature a brief story about the titular pirate and his ship that, cursed, became known as the Phantom Ship.

The beer is lovely hue between gold and amber. It pours with an eggshell head that fades speedily to leave a patchy disc of bubbles. Malt and molasses are the dominant aromatics, while the flavour combines those notes with some caramel and a hint of dark rum sweetness. The back end struggles a bit due to a lack of significant bitterness.

This Captain was pretty good, but had too much emphasis on sweet and not enough on hops. A bit more carbonation might also have made a difference, as it felt a bit syrupy. Still, it has a great nose and the front end tastes excellent.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Haliburton Highlands Honey Brown Ale

“Store cool. Enjoy fresh.” So admonishes 500mL bottles of Haliburton Highlands Brewing’s Honey Brown Ale; so into the fridge it went and down my gullet soon after. A 5% alcohol ale from Haliburton, Ontario, this stuff is brewed using “locally produced honey and oats” to produce a handsome amber ale that pours under a blanket of eggshell head.

The beer has a honey-sweet nose offset against a roasted malt base. The flavour is equally well-balanced, with sweet oat and honey notes that hold there own against legitimate brown ale elements of malted toastiness and an English-style ale bitterness.

Honey brown ales often falter, as far as I’m concerned, when they focus too much on the honey and not enough on the brown ale—Halliburton’s take on the style doesn’t fall into that trap—it is a brown ale first, with sticky molasses, rich malt, and decent bitterness—dressed up with some local honey sweetness. This beer should have been in the 6% range, but otherwise, I thought it worked nicely.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Country Brown Ale

Country Brown Ale is my second foray into the world of Lake on the Mountain Brewing Company. This 5% alcohol, 34 IBU brown ale comes from Prince Edward County, Ontario, and comes in 660mL bombers. The label features a classic red barn and made me pick it from among LotM’s offerings.

Dark brown with ruddy leanings, Country Brown poured with a quickly diminishing yet oddly persistent tan head. Roasted malts and toasted brown bread were the prevalent aromatics. As for the flavour, this nicely balanced number ambles between malt, molasses, and biscuit, with a short burst of dry hops to shut the barn door.

For me, brown ales are often a reliable barometer of a brewer’s skill. Remember, I don’t brew myself, so this may be pure fancy, but to me, a brown ale is easy to make but hard to make well. From a reviewer’s perspective, earning basic points is easy enough, but it’s a tricky style that shows imperfections pretty clearly. Based on the quality of Country Brown, and in the strength of only one other beer, I suspect that the folks at LotM are more than mere hobby brewers. This beer was tasty and balanced, with few knocks against it. Sure, I’d like to see higher integer preceding the %, and a few more IBUs, but the foundation of this ale is better that good—not too sweet, not flimsy, and not tinny. In short, this is a dandy brown ale. 

Interestingly, after I reviewed this ale, I checked out some of the reviews on the big beer reviewing sites just to see what other people were saying. This is not something I often do, because I trust my own opinions, but I was curious about this brewery I’d never even heard of. The reviews of this beer were sparse, but none was particularly complimentary. I’m not calling bullshit on any of those reviewers, nor claiming I know something they don’t (since I have little formal training and a lumbering palate at best). I just think it’s a good demonstration of the subjectivity of beer reviewing.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Shotgun Wedding

I found myself in Bardstown, Kentucky--Bourbon Capital of the World--with the Bitter Wife and two great friends. After an afternoon spent touring a distillery, I needed a bit of a break from the Kentucky Brown, so we ducked into the 3rd Street Tap House for a quick brew.

I selected a pint of Shotgun Wedding, a 5.3% alcohol vanilla brown ale brewed by Country Boy Brewing, in Lexington, Kentucky.

 

My pint poured hazy, with an amber-brown hue and thinnish layer of off-white head. It had a warm, toasty malt nose with smooth vanilla tones and some caramel sweetness. The flavour is incredibly mild, but sweet. It has a malt focus with understated vanilla bean notes. It finishes sweetly, with a slightly toasted quality and just a hint of bitterness.

I thought that shotgun wedding was pretty decent, though not really anything to write home about. It was mellow and approachable, but a bit too sweet for a second.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Deep Tracks

New, or at least new to me, is Deep Tracks, an American Brown Ale from the "normal is weird" crowd at Barrie, Ontario's Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery. Sold in 473mL cans featuring a guitar-wielding lad walking a dirt track, this ale contained a heady 6.2% alcohol and 45 IBUs. The beer poured with an impossibly fluffy off-white head. Beneath that, it proved to be a dark brown ale with ruby highlights.

To my nose, Deep Tracks had a very mild smell--caramel maltiness leaning on a faintly bitter foundation. The flavour had a bit more oomph. It started sweetly, with caramel goodness leading the way. Behind that came a mellow finish, turning up just slightly at the very end with a crackle of hops bitterness. In terms of mouthfeel, this ale was creamy and smooth.

While Deep Tracks wasn't as bitter and assertive as many of the American Brown Ales I've sipped in the past, it did have a lovely character that left me feeling peaceful and jolly. If Flying Monkeys keep brewing this stuff, I'm sure I'll keep buying it--it has the cache needed to worm its way into my semi-regular Ontario beer purchasing repertoire.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Leather Interior

According to the tap list at Bar Hop, Redline Brewhouse's Leather Interior is a brown ale with vanilla beans and toasted almonds. It sounded like a dessert to me, and given that I was stuffed to the gills with brunch, I figured I'd give it a whirl. At 5.4%, this beer outta Barrie, Ontario, wasn't overly potent--just warm.

My 15oz glass of ale showed up looking pretty--chocolate brown with ruby highlights, under a fog of creamy head. The nose had a large molasses presence built around a roasted malt body, and, most notably, a huge vanilla tone. The flavour starts like a classic brown ale; all roasted malt business. But as each sip progressed, rich notes of vanilla and mocha became evident. 

Innovative and nicely executed, Leather Interior left me feeling mellow and satisfied. This beer had a smooth, creamy mouthfeel that really suited its flavour profile. It wasn't necessarily a great choice for a sunny, summery afternoon, but I was pleased to have it. A bit more booze could have helped the cause a bit, though, by amping it up to a true dessert beer. Also worth noting, this beer had the potential to be too sweet, but managed to stay on the happy side of that particular line.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Louis Cifer American Brown Ale

I got off work about an hour before my wife on a Wednesday evening and had to kill some time before date night, so I headed off in her direction and ducked into the Louis Cifer Brew Works, a relatively new brewpub on Toronto's east side. It was really early when I arrived, so the big place was almost empty which suited me fine. I grabbed a seat and ordered up a pint of their American Brown Ale, a 5.8% alcohol number brewed in house.

My pint turned up looking elegant--chestnut hued, clear, and created with a sudsy cream head. The ABA featured a quite pleasing aroma of nuts and roasted malt, backed with molasses. The flavour started slow, with a slightly flimsy, malty initial note, but picked up a bit of steam toward the finish, as roasted nut and malt asserted themselves a bit more emphatically. The finish even had a whisper of bitterness, though nowhere near at the level I was hoping for from an American brown.

If this stuff were simply offered as a brown ale, I'd have been a bit more keen on it, but by selling it as an American brown, I got my hops hopes up--my bitter bias riled--and found myself a trifle disappointed. LC's take on the style was not what I expected, though the beer I received did taste pretty good. A bit more noise from the front end and substantial bitterness to close and this stuff would have had me singing its praises. Instead, I'm merely speaking them.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

"Dean" PNW Mahogany Ale

My next foray into SingleCut Beersmith's offerings was their "Dean" PNW Mahogany Ale. I had a pint on tap at the brewpub in Queens. What I got was a clear ale with a nice, amber-brown colour under an off-white foam. Dean contained 6% alcohol.

It's aroma had toasted caramel on the brain, but also packed a dank hop wallop. The flavour was decidedly woodsy. Earthy malt notes mingled with evergreen and a musty hop charm. There is also a pretty healthy caramel malt base that "really tied the room together."

I found this beer to be evocative of beards, campfires, and canoeing--very outdoorsy and vaguely wild. My advice to you is that if you're in NYC, drag yourself out to Queens and grab yourself a pint (or a growler) of these rootsy suds.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Terrestrial India Brown Ale

It's been a while since I've tried something new from Guelph, Ontario's stalwart Wellington Brewery, but on my way home recently I spotted a 750mL capped swing top bottle of Terrestrial India Brown Ale, and I had to make it my own.

 

Terrestrial is a 5.9%, oaky amber ale that hazily pours with a lusty cream head.  According to the label, it has a depth of 57 IBUs, which isn't unsubstantial. There is an earthy, nutty aroma that competes with an enjoyable hops vibe. The beer isn't as flavourful as I wanted it to be, but the notes present were quite pleasing. Toasted malt, nutty confectionery, and dank hops all vie for attention, though the hops wait in the wings until close to final curtain.

 

I find hybrid beers like this incredibly interesting, but also hard to assess. I guess the trick is to play it like the late, great Roger Ebert and rate them contextually, based on what I think they set out to achieve. Terrestrial is, to me, a brown ale with heavy-handed hopping, and I feel like that's what was intended. It's tasty and refined--though this means it's not as pushy or boozy as it could have been. I enjoyed it, and would gladly revisit it in short order. The name, though, gives me pause. Terrestrial? With a UFO on the label? Maybe I'm being too literal, but it doesn't work for me.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Eephus Oatmeal Brown Ale

I suspect it will be impossible for me to drink a pint of Left Field Brewery's Eephus Oatmeal Brown Ale without thinking about Richard Pryor in the role of down and out pitcher Montgomery Brewster in the cinematic classic Brewster's Millions. The slow, lazy, high-arcing pitch that Pryor/Brewster tosses to baffle opponents is the Eephus (though I don't recall the word ever being uttered in the film).

So we have a beer named in honour of a junk pitch that comes from a Torontonian brewery with a baseball hang up. I was immediately interested.

I purchased a sixer of 473mL cans at the brewery's bottle shop after a visit to the joint. Eephus pours a creamy deep brown, with amber highlights. It decanted with a nice layer of eggshell head, though it barely made it out of the first inning. There is a mellow but engrossing aroma that is reminiscent of warm cocoa and cool chocolate milk. Despite its pedigree as an American Brown Ale, Eephus' flavour is initially milk stout-like, with molasses and mocha notes dominating the front end, though there is a bitter, cigar smoke back end that keeps things interesting through the finish and prevents the beer from succumbing to over-sweetness.

At 5.5%, Eephus isn't troublesome, and combined with a velvety mouthfeel, it's definitely an easy-going brew. Its oatmeal is delivered through the inclusion of flaked oats. These provide a grainy, well roasted, and earthy quality that adds a bit of charm.

While Eephus isn't perfect, it sure is a winner. Like its namesake, this brew is a strikeout pitch that has the potential to leave even veteran hitters whirling around harmlessly in the batter's box. Give me a bit more nutty oomph and a touch more boozy heat if you please, but even failing that, this beer is on the verge of being genuinely remarkable.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Picaroons 104th Regiment Brown Ale

From the sprawling metropolis of Fredericton, New Brunswick comes the 104th Regiment Brown Ale. This brown grog is brewed by the talented folks at Northampton Brewing Company. At only 4.2% alcohol, this is a very sessionable ale. The 500mL bottle features a history lesson about 1,000+ kilometre march of NB's 104th Regiment to Kingston, Ontario in 1813. Having driven that distance and voewed never to do so again, I can hardly imagine marching it.

104th has a nice looking oaken colour, and pours with a thick tan head. I found it to be somewhat surprising that this beer was fairly clear. It has a nutty aroma that features a faint whiff of tobacco. This brew is considerably flavourful, particularly considering the low alcohol content. There are notes of tobacco, nut, and some faintly sweet molasses charms. It has a deceptively thin mouthfeel.

This is a quality session ale. Light on booze but jammed with flavour.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.