Perle Brown
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

Lucent brown with red, orange and amber highlights. The golden beige, tight-bubbled head started out at one finger and fell to a barely covering film by the several minute mark. Blurry rings of lace became a solid sheet as the beer disappeared.

The style was appreciable from the nose, but only just. It was primarily fruity with accessory notes of 'brown' malt and nuts. I liked what I smelled, it just needed to be more style-specific and more aromatic. Warming helped a little.

I felt roughly the same way about the flavor. It wasn't until the second half of each mouthful that toasted malt, oven-baked nuts and overripe apples made themselves known to the taste buds. Fruity, light spicy hops (obviously Hallertauer Perle) provided more flavor than bitterness.

Upon reaching the bottom of the pint, it became obvious that more hops were present than originally thought. I'd call the bitterness moderate and overall personality balanced. I kept waiting for the 'pizzazz lightbulb' to flash in my brain, but it never did.

The mouthfeel was closer to medium than to light, with a laid back amount of carbonation that resulted in a supreme softness. It wasn't bad, but the mouth interest provided by a few more bubbles would have been ever better. On-tap would have been the way to go.

I'm not often bowled over by brown ales unless they do something out of the ordinary. Perle Brown is well-brewed, tremendously drinkable beer (that I refuse to call ordinary), but I can't see myself ordering it again. There are too many better RB beers on most days.