When the calendar turns from summer to fall, we don’t totally put away our crisp pilsners, bitter IPAs, and refreshing lagers, but we definitely start to learn toward darker, maltier brews. One of my favorite beers to ring in the season of crisp leaves and chilly nights is the brown ale. s. Luckily, all are well-suited for fall sipping.
In its simplest terms, a brown ale is usually a dark brown-hued beer with a lopsided malts-to-hops ratio. While the flavors can vary depending on the type of brown ale, they’re generally known to feature toasted malts, caramel, chocolate, and toffee, and have little to no bitterness at the finish. The style includes English-style brown ale, brown porters, Flanders ales, American brown ales, and others.
Now that we have all the necessary facts out of the way, it’s time to actually try some. To help get you started, I’m tasting and ranking some of the brown ales I was able to get my hands on this week.
8) Jackalope Bearwalker
ABV: 5.1%
Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Technically this 5.1% ABV beer is labeled as a “maple brown ale.” That’s because it isn’t simply a brown ale. It’s made with chocolate malts but gets its bold, sweet, rich flavor from being infused during the conditioning process with pure maple syrup.
Tasting Notes:
This beer’s nose is dominated by molasses, vanilla, and very light maple. The palate is more of the same with some caramel, toasted malts, and some light pine, but not as much maple as we’d hope. In fact, we really had to try hard to find any maple flavor. Overall, it’s pretty watery and unexciting.
Bottom Line:
For a beer labeled as an “ale brewed with maple syrup”, it’s not as sweet as it should be. Overall, it’s fairly bland, watery, and unexciting.
7) Avery Brewing Ellie’s Brown
ABV: 5.5%
Average Price: $11.75 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This 5.5% American-style brown ale is brewed with six different malts as well as Sterling, Bullion, and Cascade hops. It’s known for its sweet, nutty, malty flavor profile that’s well suited for fall sipping.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is surprisingly light for such a dark beer. There are notes of caramel malts and a nutty aroma, but not much else. The palate is a mix of toffee, fruit esters, and slight, roasty malts, with just a hint of bitter hops at the finish. While it seems like there were a lot of flavors, they didn’t seem to mesh well. The flavors just didn’t work for me.
Bottom Line:
This beer doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Is it a sweet, malty brown ale or is it a slightly tart, bitter dark lager? It’s just not for me.
6) Abita Turbodog
ABV: 5.6%
Average Price: $9.50 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This popular brown ale from Louisiana’s Abita is brewed with a combination of caramel, pale, and chocolate malts, and gets its floral, piney kick from the addition of Willamette hops. One of the brewery’s flagship beers, it’s known for its combination of sweet, rich flavors and light hops.
Tasting Notes:
Notes of caramel, toasted malts, and sweet grains meet the nose. Nothing else noticeable in the aroma department. The palate has more toasted malts, light vanilla, chocolate, and light, hoppy bitterness. It had everything brown ale drinkers enjoy, it’s just a little flat and light on flavor.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a no-frills, malty brown ale for fall, look for Abita Turbodog. If you’re looking for a little more depth, look elsewhere.
5) Calicraft Oaktown Brown
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This is a different type of brown ale. Instead of simply being a sweet, malty, warming beer, it also gets a fruity, wine-like flavor from a blend of three different oaks during fermentation. It’s also hopped with Cascade hops to give it a slightly bitter finish.
Tasting Notes:
Right away, this beer has the aromas we know from a classic American brown ale. There are notes of chocolate, toasted malts, caramel, and candied nuts. The flavor follows suit with more vanilla, toasted malts, caramel, and fruit ester. It’s surprisingly sweet with some bitterness at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is definitely a unique beer, and we implore you to give it a try because it has to be tasted to be believed. That being said, it’s simply too sweet for my palate.
4) Liftbridge Fireside Flannel
ABV: 5.5%
Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This brown ale is adorned with a flannel background with a roaring fire. Brewed with roasted malts and Yakima hops, it’s exactly the kind of beer you’d drink to warm yourself on a chilly fall day.
Tasting Notes:
Classic aromas of butterscotch, toasted malts, vanilla, chocolate, and light, floral hops are all prevalent on the nose. The palate is equally complex with notes of oaky wood, more toasted malts, toffee, bready-malts, and lightly bitter hops that seem to tie everything together nicely. All in all, it’s a very well-balanced, warming fall sipper.
Bottom Line:
Fireside Flannel is an aptly named beer. It’s balanced, complex, and has a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness, the kind of beer that will make you want to throw on a flannel shirt and greet the cool fall weather.
3) Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
One of Samuel Smith’s most popular beers, Nut Brown is brewed with simple ingredients like well water, barley malt, yeast, and aromatic hops. The nutty, sweet, rich flavor is anything but simple.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of bready malts, caramel, vanilla, and roasted malts greet your nose before your first sip. The palate continues this trend with raisins, fruit esters, brown sugar, sticky toffee pudding, and a gentle, sweet candied almond finish.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown is one of the most beloved brown ales of all time. It’s sweet, rich, nutty, and extremely memorable.
2) Cigar City Maduro
ABV: 5.5%
Average Price: $10.50 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Named for the robust, well-known cigar from Tampa’s Ybor City, Cigar City Maduro is a Northern English brown ale brewed with flaked oats. Even if you aren’t a cigar smoker, you can still appreciate the toasted malts, coffee, and chocolate flavors of this beer.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find aromas of caramel, toasted malts, bitter chocolate, and roasted coffee beans. Sipping it reveals flavors like almond cookies, butterscotch, chocolate, freshly brewed coffee, and a gentle, dry, slightly bitter finish. Bold, flavorful, and balanced.
Bottom Line:
This is an all-around great example of a brown ale done right. It’s filled with flavors like chocolate, caramel, and coffee, and has just the right amount of bitterness and a dry, memorable finish.
1) Port Brewing Board Meeting
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $12 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
If you’re looking for a warming fall beer, this is the brown ale for you. It’s a bold 8% ABV and has been a year-round beer from the San Diego-based brewery since 2013. It gets its intense flavor from the addition of cacao nibs sourced from San Francisco and locally sourced coffee.
Tasting Notes:
Bold aromas of espresso beans, semi-sweet chocolate, toffee, and vanilla are highlight the nose. The palate is filled with more cocoa, freshly brewed coffee, butterscotch, vanilla, and slightly nutty flavors. It’s so complex that you don’t even realize how high the alcohol content is.
Bottom Line:
While not touted as a breakfast beer, I can’t think of many better brown ales that I’d want to enjoy at a tailgate or instead of a brunch mimosa. It’s rich, complex, and extremely flavorful. Just don’t let the high alcohol content sneak up on you.
