Centurion Brown Ale
Great Waters Brewing

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From:
Great Waters Brewing
 
Minnesota, United States
Style:
American Brown Ale
ABV:
Not listed
Score:
86
Avg:
3.8 | pDev: 11.32%
Reviews:
10
Ratings:
10
Status:
Retired
Rated:
May 26, 2011
Added:
Jun 02, 2005
Wants:
  1
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of Snow81
Reviewed by Snow81 from Minnesota

4.42/5  rDev +16.3%
look: 5 | smell: 3 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5
Appearance: Pours a dark brown

Head: Nice frosty light brown head that dissipates quite quickly

Smell: Toasted rich malt with a subtle earthiness

Taste: roosted malt with a hard nut in the back, dry finish, this is very big and bold for a brown ale if you ask me, very nice and complex

Weight: Medium to heavy body with a low carbonation

Finish: Rich malt still lingers with a bitter hop finish
May 26, 2011
Photo of BigBry
Reviewed by BigBry from Canada (AB)

4/5  rDev +5.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
From their website/beer menu (I did not add as a new beer)
The New Centurian:
A reprisal of our dark, cask session beer. This ale was created using a recipe that dates back over 100 years. Brewed using exclusively U.K. barley and hops.
O.G. 13.6P, 20 IBU'S, 4.7% ABV
I have enjoyed all Great Waters bers so far and this was no exception. Dark red / brown color, thin off white foam. Malty, sweet smell, toasted grain, nutty. Solid malt base, similar taste as smells. Finishes with a bit of chocolate and coffee. Smooth, creamy body, being hand drawn always adds to the mouthfeel. I always like to try their cask offerings.
Nov 24, 2010
Photo of mwagner1018
Reviewed by mwagner1018 from Minnesota

3.1/5  rDev -18.4%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5
Offered to me as "New Centurion Mild" on cask.
A- A dark red hue- French roast appearance, deep toffee small cap.

S- Very malty, some butter scotch notes. A bit high on the caramel malt in my opinion for a mild, a nice toasted nutty aroma though.

T- Nice malt character, moderate balance in the cask option, some roasted flavor...some definite chocolate and coffee notes on this beer.

M- Smooth velvet texture, does seem to have some significant residual sugar, pretty full body, but with a slight astringent back note.

D- Nice temperature for this style (served on cask), but does lack in the cleanliness I would prefer. Relatively high ABV as listed, which doesn't seem to fit, with the residual note, does have a slight alcohol bite...a decent beer...

Part of my dissatisfaction with this beer (although not having an impact on my rating) came from the waitresses ability (or significant lack there of) to give me any explanation or talk beer with me at all. I had done my home work checking up on their beer selection and utilizing BA to determine what I thought I might be in the mood for...but she did nothing to help entice me into any of their selections. I picked this one simply because it was their "Special Cask Offering"...
Sep 16, 2009
Photo of Ragingbull
Reviewed by Ragingbull from California

3.27/5  rDev -13.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Dark amber to brown in color. Thick frothy head of tannish white foam. Smooth caramel notes on the nose. Malt body and smooth creamy attack. Very light body and mouthfeel. Seems to have a mild boozy hint and there are some late presenting nut tones. I have now tried this on two occassions and it seems to have mellowed out a little bit in the weeks in between and perhaps is getting better. Maybe its my imagination.
Jul 20, 2009
Photo of alexgash
Reviewed by alexgash from Connecticut

3.63/5  rDev -4.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
The first beer I tried at Great Waters. Dark, murky brown, with a frothy, cask head. Nose of sweetish, nutty malts and toasted bread. Slightly sweet (ginger bread) up front, much roastier toward the finish. Roasted bitterness is appetizing. Light-bodied, easy drinking session ale. Not bad.
Mar 02, 2006
Photo of cokes
Reviewed by cokes from Wisconsin

3.4/5  rDev -10.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3
On cask. Listed as "New Centurion Mild Ale". 6.0% ABV. It appears to be the same thing.

Pours to an auburn-tinted mud, with straggling, dirty, lace.
Nose of dark fruit and chocolate syrup. Over time, it becomes a convincing facsmile of a prune juice and chocolate milk cocktail.
Far removed from more typical versions of a mild, this seems to have a jumping off point around something akin to Sarah Hughes' Dark Ruby Mild. Big and thickish, and sweetish, with notions of black raisins, plums, and currants. It lacks the sour component of Sarah's, and this teeters oversweet, especially as the toffee and caramel flavors ensue. No notable apperance, hop-wise.
The cask imparts its usual velvet, but it can't mask the stray sugars that begin to clog up the mouth, and adhere to the teeth.
I wanted something drinkable here, and it didn't deliver (also, it is curious that a "mild ale" was the strongest beer pouring during my visit, higher in alcohol than 2 IPAs). This has some merit as a historical recreation, but little elsewhere.
Aug 15, 2005
Photo of feloniousmonk
Reviewed by feloniousmonk from Minnesota

3.75/5  rDev -1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
the name I read off of the chalkboard was "New Centurion"...

Appearance: brown, lush carbonation, tall, creamy cap of foam. Nice.
Nose: malt peaks through, brown sugar, molasses...
In the taste, a definite sweetness, but very mellow in the mouth. Mildness is the order of the day, but very satisfactory.
I'm not truly a fan of mild ales, but this one fits the bill very well, and is considerably flavorful for the style. Made more palatable by the cask serving.
Medium bodied, light finish. I'd drink it again.
Aug 11, 2005
Photo of edbeered
Reviewed by edbeered from Minnesota

3.94/5  rDev +3.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Served on cask at Minnesota's most CAMRA compliant brewpub(so they say-nothing in my experience refutes this). This is a recipe over 100 years old(thus New Centurian). Color is an inviting deep brown hue. The head is brown with good lacing in the glass. The smell is biscuity but(pardon the pun)mild. The flavor is complex with earthy overtones. Chocolate predominates at first. This is followed by a distinctive vanilla flavor on the tip of the tongue. A vanilla chocolate beer-it tastes better than it sounds.As is typical of mild beers, there is no bitterness on the palate. I am a big fan of cask beers. This beer is very smooth and very drinkable.
Jul 18, 2005
Photo of ADR
Reviewed by ADR from Pennsylvania

4.07/5  rDev +7.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.5
On cask at the brewpub...

Bright highlights on a dark sienna background, cask carbonation close to the top. A rising head of tan appearance and almost an inch in height. Laces in downward dripping collar-like rings. Nice aroma, malty with caramel and sugary vanilla tones. Mouthfeel is the best part here, soft and creamy and full. Flavor is pretty agreeable but not complex -- a tad sweet and overbearing but showing strong elements of toffee and caramelized sugar, long-lasting with some residual sugars and reminders of molasses as well. Notable in its stolid presence, lack of fade in texture, and big malt characteristics. A little cloying but a nice rendition in the Brown category.
Jun 06, 2005
Photo of tavernjef
Reviewed by tavernjef from Minnesota

4.38/5  rDev +15.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
On-cask at the brewpub: I must first say, wow! The new brewer has really gone ahead full steam with some of the new beers and I couldn't be more content having these available 10 blocks from me.

Color is a medium/dark brown with an amber glow to some parts of its overall when up to brighter light. Medium-smallish cap of bubbly light tanned foam sits atop for a good length. Lacing adequately leaves some strings as its consumed.

Aroma is mostly made up of maple syrup and brown sugar with a nice clean cookie dough presence about its waft. Touches of cinnamon, vanilla, and oatmeal decorate a cocoa backing.

Nice soft cocoa-milken front, lofty, airy; brilliantly merging into a stream of big maple and brown shugga softness. Bold and airy to its character. A total change from most other cask renditions brought out from GW. This was heavenly once you got a few sips in ya. Big but lovingly delicate and soft cookie dough presence with hints to vanilla, peprika, cinnamon, and has loads of maple enduced cookie batter. Its like drinkin' a cookie. Finishes lightly dry with another smaller route into some soft cocoa as it fades into a cookie dough enlightened daydream pillow nap.

Feel is amazingly soft and supple with a big mediumness with not a drop of emptyness. Grabs with the cocoa, heads to maple/brown sugar, and stays the course right back around into the cocoa all the while maintaining the same soft body and warmth from the cask you'd expect a big Brown Ale to have. Very nice.

Now ordinarily I find most browns to be a bit drab and boring, but this is quite a miraculous brown. Big on cookie dough-maple character with a nice leveling cocoa display rollicking the rest of the forgotten notes in a symphony of cask pulled hamrony. By far one of the best beers off the cask I've encountered at Great Waters.
Yippee woo haw good stuff!
Jun 02, 2005
Centurion Brown Ale from Great Waters Brewing
Beer rating: 86 out of 100 with 10 ratings