Brown beers: unloved and underrated?

I don't know, it seems like folks around beeradvocate overlook Doppelbocks quite frequently too.

 

Yes! I bought the fall pack more for the Vienna lager, but it turned out the Tumbler was my favorite brew in the pack. I usually didn't care that much for brown ales. Could be that Newcastle ruined them for me. Now I'm planning to start searching them out.

 

I have had some good ones, but just find brown ales the most boring choice out there.

 

I rarely drink Brown Ales, not really a fan...Bell's Best and Moose Drool are the exceptions

 

I prefer Moose Drool to Bell's Best Brown, but SS Nut Brown Ale is the best of the lot.

 

Brown beers are certainly unloved; at least two BAs used ‘b-words’: “boring” and "bland".

Sierra Nevada made a decision to replace Tumbler with another beer; I presume due to flagging sales.

I homebrew a Brown Ale every year. It would appear that I am an exception to other BAs on the topic of Brown Ale?

Cheers!

 

Moose Drool was one of the beers that got me into craft and I have retained a love for brown ales. I think they a very well balanced and drinkable beer variety that is consistently underrated just like most varieties that aren't IPAs, stouts or Belgian. I have a Northern English Brown Ale in my fermenter right now, actually. It should be a nice brew to drink during the winter months.

 

I completely agree, moose drool was one of the first craft beers I tried and it fostered a love brown ales for me as well. I think some BA's don't give them their due as they are perceived as having muted flavors that are not amped up like so many of the "top" beers today. Some of my favorite brews are still brown ales, Alesmith nut brown, Ellies brown, and goose island nut brown.

 

Maybe this artwork is the reason people aren't into brown ales

 

I love me some stouts and porters. They *can* be brown in hue - though usually on the much darker end of the spectrum.

 

Hoppy brown ales are the shit. I could see that becoming a popular style.

 

I love brown ales. I mostly stick to the ones brewed in the United States because I trust them more than any English brewed ones. Oddly enough, I don't seem to have any problem with buying the few German dunkel lagers that are available to me in Chicagoland.

 

New Glarus Fat Squirrel, Bell's Best Brown, Avery Ellie, Cigar City Bolita, Smuttynose Old Dog, DFH Indian Brown and Palo Santo Marron, Sam Smith's Nut Brown, and Sierra Nevada Tumbler are all really good examples of the style. They're delicious as sessionable beers and have great balance. Unfortunately this balance makes many BAs think of them as boring as with many other styles like pilsners, dortmunders, bocks, etc.

 

A balanced beer means you get some of everything in the taste.It is multidimensional .

 

I think brown ales and porters suffer from being middle of the road beers. I enjoy them from time to time, but it seems like the craft beer community wants the most extreme beers whether its the biggest, hoppiest, wiskeyest, longest aged, sexiest, or most rare beers they can find. Anything short of that is just no good, leaving brown ales, hefs, pale ales, and etc.. as lesser beers in the eyes of the "craft beer community." I raise my can of Averys Ellie's Brown ale to conclude.

 

They overlook (traditional) Bocks even more so. Then again, so do the brewers and importers...

 

Brown ale seems to have very little discussion here on BA.

Brown beers, on the other hand- doppelbocks; dubbels/quadrupels; winter warmers; etc...- they seem to have very good reception.

I'm not sure where this ale vs beer argument came from; it's almost tangent-like in this discussion.

 

Jackie O's Chomolungma from Athens, Ohio is my go to beer. I always have a sixer of it in my fridge. http://jackieos.com/brews/chomolungma/

 

Top five beer in my book. I will never forget how shocked I was when I tried it.

 

New Holland Cabin Fever. Deeeeee-lish.