Derby Brown Ale
Lore Brewing Company

Pours a rich, extremely dark brown with a voluminous, caramel colored head. Retention is very good and lacing is decent.
Smell is toasted malts, caramel, a hint of butterscotch, and maybe some hops.
Taste is strong toast, malt, hops, faint caramel. Balance is missing, it's mostly burnt malt.
Body is medium at best, a little watery to be honest. Effervescence is a bit light. Dry finish, a bit harsh in the aftertaste. A decent brew with food, less so alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle. Poured out a clear, brown color with a small, tan head of foam. It smelled of chocolate, roasted malt and some toffee. Good roasty malt flavor with caramel and toffee and a mild bitterness.

Derby Brown is a great brown ale. It pours a dark brown, much like a lower ABV American Stout. The aroma is a muted malt, but the taste provides tasty leafy hops over a creamy roasted malt base. Nothing groundbreaking, but very tasty. The smooth mouthfeel really helps drinkability. A solid brown by a new brewery that's now on my radar. The kind of beer I'd love to session at a bar.

22 ounce bottle. Served in a pint glass, the beer pours dark brown with a half inch light tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. The brew smells like toasted malt, coffee, chocolate, fruit, and some light hops. Taste is similar to the aroma, but there's the addition of some caramel and nuttiness. There's also a light bitter hoppy finish. I liked this brew more and more the longer I drank it. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a bit slick and smooth. I'd like to try this one again in the future. $4.99 a bomber.

 

 

Had this on 2012-02-02 in Danville, KY at the 303 West restaurant (from tasting notes)

A - Opaque dark brown with no head and no lace.

S - Mild-medium roasted grain.

T - Chocolate and some coffee. Medium roasted grain, touch of sour. Dries with lingering chocolate, coffee and a stale/sour off flavor.

M - Light body, light medium carbonation. Crisp and clean.

O - Not remarkable.

Rustic and rudementary, Lore's Derby Brown Ale borrows the malty influence of Northern English Brown Ales, but adaptations of American hop rates and crisper body gives a glimpse into the influence of American brewing.

Delivered to the bar in a standard pint glass, the dark brown sheen carries a mild haze and glossy appearance. Light creamy head character of white foam gives the beer an espresso creme impression. Very Brittish looking as the carbonation is supressed and in cask-like demeanor allows for light pockets of lace to form on the glass.

Caramel, chocolate, walnuts, coffee, and overall toasty-grain aromas carry the nose without any fruity compounds or unnecessary spices. Chocolate and toast notes bring the beer from more nutty and fruity English Browns and into the realm of American Browns.

Delicious chocolate and coffee frame the initial taste while the mid palate of thin caramel, walnut, toast, and grain carry the beer into an ever-increasing bitter and slightly peppery finish. Medium bitterness hardly resonates until the sweeter malt flavors subside and the spicy, pine-like bitterness offers a mostly-clean closure to the beer.

Medium bodied to start, the beer's early creamy effect subsides quickly and allows for a long draw at mid palate that allows a thinning, grain, and relaxed body to rise- all just before the malty-dry finish of coffee and hop bitter/dry interplay.

Obvious comparisons to Newcastle Brown Ale come to mind. But Derby Brown has a more robust dark flavors of coffee, chocolate, and toast with a fuller and less dry finish. With darker and more bitter nutty flavors, Derby Brown's walnut taste is more exaggerated than than in the grainy-sweet Newcastle. If not for the thin mouthfeel at mid palate than hinders drinkability slightly, Derby Brown wins.