Beer Engine Brown Ale
Town Hall Brewery

1/2 gallon growler.

Pours a nice clear auburn shade of brown. Nice looking hefty off-white head. Good retention. Lace is bountiful and droopy. Nice looking brew. Aroma is of chocolate, yeast, cocoa and vanilla bean. Very inviting. First sip brings dry cocoa powder to the palate. What follows is some light roasted malt tones and caramel. A little residue of brown sugar is left on the tongue. Nice taste. The body is about medium-full and the mouthfeel is soothing and creamy. Very solid brown ale. Glad I nabbed a growler before it ran out.

On-tap at the brewpub: Ruby brown and clear with a cocoa dusted creamy head about a pinky high, resides down quickly to a thin collar, very minimal lacing. Aroma isn't much, but is clean non-the-less with a soft maple syrup and brown sugar play with a very slight nutty roast. Flavors are nice in this brown ale, light and soft with a certain subtle grab always perking the buds. Very slight roasty quality, sweetly so over most of its stay with a light bready and brown sugar nutty thing going on. Clean and mild overall. Great drying thats light and cocoa dusted towards the finish. Clean and mild mannered in its carbonation and feel, a bit shy of medium bodied leaning fairly heavily to a lighter bodied quickness. Which makes for a great drinker; so it sits very high on the drinkable scale. Seemingly simple, yet not. Favorablely surprising and subtle. Growler worthy and sessionable.

On cask at the brewpub...

Nice pour, sort of a hazy chestnut color with a solid 1/2 an inch of creamy head and downward settling carbonation. Requiste thick and complicated lace. Brown sugar aroma, a bit of spicy nutmeg chimes in. Mouthfeel is as creamy as the appearance, thick and coating. Lots of flavor for a Brown Ale, very sweet with molasses -- almost a cross between pecan and shoe-fly pie (a molasses and crumb pie from Pennsylvania "Dutch" country). Nuttiness and just a trace of the tiniest citrusy tinge even things out. Would generally be too sweet for me and not really my preferred category of Ale, but a very solid rendition that gets the most out of the style.

Clear, ruby red color, just shy of truly brown, hefty helping of cocoa-tan foam standing proudly and assuredly on top.
Aroma: nutty and sweet, light, mild, but pleasant.
smoothness reigns on the palate as well, with a nifty little side order of chocolate joining the nuttiness and caramel in the taste. Light in body, even thin, but feels just right for the style. This tastes good, actually, and I think it tastes even better the more i toss back. Perfectly suited as a session ale.
There's more to come, however. The name must refer to cask-conditioning, and it was available that way, as well on the night of it's initial offering. I did not have a cask Beer Engine, but it got gushing raves from fantome, that esteemed ale imbiber. Guess I've got to go back tomorrow...
(didn't catch the ABV, but it feels on the low side)