English Brown Ales

 

Once upon a time, all beers were dark beers.

 

Malt is the ingredient that gives beer color. Malt, or germinated barley, needs to be dried before it can be used to brew beer and prior to the 17th century, crude malt drying techniques left the malt dark or smoky. The result - a dark, or smoky beer. While the flavors of brown beers centuries ago probably varied a good bit from what we know today, the color of beer was often brown, or darker.

 

Today, malt is available in a wide range of strains and colors, with the darker malts providing the color of a Brown Ale. Brown malt is typically the malt used to create Brown Ales and brown malt can be made by simply baking pale malt at low temperatures until it reaches the desired color. (This process also works to create amber malt for Amber Ales.) 

 

Food Pairings

 

Brown Ales pair beautifully with red meats and chocolate. English Browns are great with pork, while American Browns tend to favor beef. Great foods with almost any Brown Ale would be apple pie, pork with brown sauce, beef vegetable soup and cheddar cheese.

 

English Brown Ales are typically divided into three main categories: Mild, Southern English and Northern English Brown Ales.

 

Mild

 

A light-flavored, malt-accented beer that is readily suited to drinking in quantity. Refreshing, yet flavorful. Some versions may seem like lower gravity brown porters.

History: May have evolved as one of the elements of early porters.

 

In modern terms, the name "mild" refers to the relative lack of hop bitterness (i.e. less hoppy than a pale ale, and not so strong). Originally, the "mildness" may have referred to the fact that this beer was young and did not yet have the moderate sourness that aged batches had. Somewhat rare in England, good versions may still be found in the Midlands around Birmingham.

 

Examples: Moorhouse Black Cat, Highgate Mild, Brain's Dark, Banks's Mild, Coach House Gunpowder Strong Mild, Gale's Festival Mild, Woodforde's Norfolk Nog, Goose Island PMD Mild

 

Southern English Brown Ale

 

A luscious, malt-oriented brown ale, with a caramel, dark fruit complexity of malt flavor. May seem somewhat like a smaller version of a sweet stout or a sweet version of a dark mild.

 

History: English brown ales are generally split into sub-styles along geographic lines. Southern English (or "London-style") brown ales are darker, sweeter, and lower gravity than their Northern cousins.

 

Examples: Mann's Brown Ale (bottled, but not available in the US), Tolly Cobbold Cobnut Nut Brown Ale

 

Northern English Brown Ale

 

Drier and more hop-oriented that southern English brown ale, with a nutty character rather than caramel.

 

Examples: Newcastle Brown Ale, Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Tolly Cobbold Cobnut Special Nut Brown Ale, Goose Island Hex Nut Brown Ale