Brakeman Brown Ale
Siding 14 Brewing Company

 

A beer that will knock your socks off. A brown approaching porter and drifting down towards and ESB. Beautiful Craft.

 

 

 

This is a dandy brown ale, one that trends toward sweet, with big malt notes. Caramel malt and cocoa dominate the nose and taste of this smooth and satisfying beer. In some ways, it reminds me of the earliest incarnations of Big Rock Trad (when they were small enough to still brew a good beer.) Overall, Siding 14 has hit the mark with this offering!

355ml can - this one's an ode to the dude who had to slow down the train in a hurry, if need be (no pressure, eh?).

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with three hefty fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some stellar old forest growth lace around the glass as it lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of biscuity and grainy caramel malt, medium milk chocolate, cafe-au-lait, ethereal black licorice notes, and subtle earthy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, grainy and bready caramel malt, some biscuity toffee snaps, bittersweet cocoa powder, a dry roasted nuttiness, some fading coffee astringency, and more easy-going leafy, floral, and grassy verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its merely supportive frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, just a wee bit of hop acridity maybe the proverbial fly in the ointment, as such. It finishes off-dry, but not by much, as the biscuity nature of the malt shows the most staying power.

Overall, this is another well-made version of the style from this still wet behind the ears Alberta brewing concern. Lots of robust and enticing flavours abounding, with the hops being kept to a sensible background role. Worth checking out, especially if you're malt-ese (not a reference to the country).