There is something almost industrial about a brown ale. It is a salt of the earth kind of down and dirty ale. The fact that this one peaks to 7% ABV seems out of character for such a slow and approachable beverage. Normally, I have found brown ales to be similar to lagers in the amount of alcohol that they carry, but this sucker is an anomaly. I read the story that they wrote on the can, and it gives absolutely no insight as to why this would have an abnormally high ABV. This beer was just named after the town that the brewery was set up in. That's what the story tells me. I'm not here to read stories. I'm here to drink beer.
If it's a brown ale, it has to be brown, right? Well, I don't think it necessarily has to be, but this one is. It is also particularly resistant to photons going through the center of the beer. The off-white head fizzles down to a thin and complete layer across the top of the beer with the requisite ring around the sides. There probably won't be much lacing, but that's not what you go to a brown ale for, is it? Most brown ales are going to have a nutty character or even some caramel and chocolate. The aroma of this is quite faint, and I'm going to say that I can smell nuts, but they're not roasted or treated in any way. They're just bare, naked legumes. Let's find out what this is about.
First sip is a bit of a sleeper. It goes down very quickly, and I thought it was going to be able to taste the alcohol, but I don't. The overall sensation of the beer is a little nutty and a little mahogany, but there isn't a whole lot until after the beer is well gone. At that point, the somewhat sweet and also dry beer produces nuts that have a glaze of watered-down caramel on them and have been lightly smoked. It's actually really, really drinkable. I'm surprised I'm liking a brown ale this much. Time to swig!
Tip-in is moderate carbonation buzz with brown sugar (the taste without the sweetness) and mahogany. The middle is surprisingly smooth with molasses taking over from the brown sugar, but they are keeping the dryness that the tip-in started to show. The finish is where the nuts come forward with a little bit of caramel before sending nuts into the trail off.
Bottom Line: It won't get me to drink brown ales regularly, but it's not a bad one if you want one.
3.25/5