McNeills Summer Brown Ale

From a growler picked up at the brewery. Ther pour is a cloudy brown-amber with very little head. The lack of head may be due to the fact I’m trying it 24 hours after it was poured into the growler. The aroma is nutty and caramel and fairly pleasant. The taste is more on the bitter side but also malty and sweet. A nice brew.

A lightly hazed brown ale with a thin off white head. Light nutty malt aroma, with light British hops. In mouth, a nice nutty ale with roasted malts, a bit of lactic notes. Medium bodied. On tap at brewpub August 2 2009.

BCTC growler. Pours a light clear brown minimal head. Aroma is DMS, cooked corn vegetable, cabbage and light diacetyl. Fruity sweet caramel malts, light nutty and more DMS- canned corn. Ech. Body was thin and watery- perfect for chugging.

22oz bottle: Pours to a mostly clear medium brown colored body with a large eggshell-light tan colored head. The aroma is light roast, caramel, mild toast, light nuttiness with hints of coffee floating about. The taste is mild roast, like a light coffee mixed with some lighter malts, mild floral hops hidden in the background, with some toast, lightly acidic grains, and not a whole lot else. Light-medium bodied, medium carbonated, finishes sticky, though not very sweet, with some dry toasted/roasted grain notes towards the end.

Pour is light brown with thin white head...smell is horrid...vegetable and butter...flavor is the same...I see no reason to be more descriptive...I’m glad Clark chugged half the growler 2 hours before one of the cooelst fests ever because I didn’t have to look at it.

I enjoyed this brown because I have never had such a light brown ale before. Definitely interesting to try the summer brown!

Very enjoyable brown ale, and highly drinkable. I appreciate McNeil’s "summerfying" their beers without adding fruit/spice. This just has a bit less gravity and alcohol than the slopbucket and therefore the hop kick comes through. Good.

Draught at McNeill’s on 7/14/06.
Highly-hazed chestnut brown body has some dark beige notes on the edges, while the head is a creamy-ivory, rather whispy and creating a fair amount of lacing as it slowly fades to cover.
The nose is very dry for a brown ale, with citric hops bursting forth initially and really opening up the sinuses. Some buttercream (not diacetyl) and a definite nuttiness softly and slowly fills in the back. Deeply toasted grains give a hint of coffee or hazelnut, but it mixes with the yeast to become quite subtle. Certainly no gobs of sweet maltiness here, though you might call it too dry in the nose and too hop-dominated as a result.
The attenuation level on the beer is quite striking. Nearly no malt sweetness with husky grains producing some tannic/acidic notes. The more I think of it, it does almost seem "sour", as Eric claimed. Not in a lactic/bacterial sour sense, but just a downright dry, astrigent sourness that builds on the palate. So, obviously, some will find it much too dry for their liking and perhaps this beer just had extremely poor extraction and shouldnt even be terribly dry. Regardless, I appreciated the dryness and still found the hazelnut and light, creamy toffee notes to add a moderate depth. The mouthfeel, while grainy, is still vigorous and I certainly did not get any of the wateriness mentioned in many reviews. Alcohol was not apparent in aroma or flavor. High house yeast character.