Beer style and the sticker: Brown Ale

Brunette, the colour of the hair and colour of the Brown Ale, kind of…

History of Brown Ales dates back to 17th century England. In the beginning, Brown Ale wasn’t really a beer style. Rather the term “Brown ale” or “Brown beer” was simply used to describe to the colour of the beer. Back then the brown malt was widely used in brewing. By the early 19th century Inventions of new types of malts (Pale and Black patent) and Porters, Stouts and Pale Ales rising to be favourites for English beer lovers, the Brown Ale almost ceased to exist.

Our sticker for the Brown Ale

The style was practically brought back single-handedly by New Castle Brown Ale in 1927. Beer, that is still brewed today, although now by Heineken. In the US the style stayed fairly unknown until homebrewers began to be interested in it in the 1980s. And as always, the Americans created their own version of it by rising the ABV and adding citrus hop varieties (you know, the American way).

New Castle Brown Ale

Today Brown Ales are doing fine. Style is usually divided into three sub-categories: Northern-England, London and American style Brown Ale. There are some differentials between the styles but common factors are brown colour (from brown-ish to almost black) and highlighted malty flavours with nutty and malty/caramelly sweet undertones.
ABV varies a lot with historical beers to be around 4% and American versions to be up to 8%. Today some brewers have brewed beer labelled as Imperial Brown Ales with the ABV climbing over 10%.

What is your favourite Brown Ale and how many have you rated in Pint Please?