McNeills Summer Brown Ale

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Murky brown with a musty earthy aroma. Thin and watery with a decent malt character. Very dry finish. Not on the level of McNeil’s other brown ales (yes, they had 3 on tap at the time of this writing). All that being said, McNeil’s is consistently above average with almost every beer in their lineup.

Poured a medium and cloudy brown color with a smaller sized off white head. Stronger toffee aroma with butterscotch and light nuts. Tastes of nuts, toffee, caramel, toasted and roasted malts. Thinner body. This one was OK - would make a decent session beer.

22 oz bottle. Pours a slightly cloudy dark ruby, with almost no head at all even after a vigorous pour. Aroma is akin to liquid malt extract, with notes of yeast and some resiny hops. Flavor is bland and a little cardboardy, some nutty and sweet caramel malt as well. Mouthfeel is very thin and fizzy. I’m wondering if this is a fresh bottle. I purchased it about 1.5 months ago, but have kept it well and it says that it is bottle conditioned, so unless this is from the previous summer I’d have to give a big thumbs down on this guy.

Really nice dark brown color with a sorta coffee aroma (might be the roastyness). Very bitter, yet smooth.

So dark brown it’s almost black in color. Mildly roasty aroma. Smooth (borderline almost watery) nutty, roasted, taste with some lingering bitterness. Easily drinkable but a bit too mild and nonchalant.

Herbal hops, some roasty malts in the lightly acidic aroma. Hazy flat brown coloured body with shy white head. Roasted malts, mild balsamic acidity, some cooked cabbage and meaty, sulfury flavour. Thin and watery texture with low carbonation. Unfortunately this one had to pleasure the drain. Bottle sampled with MartinT and Olivier (Winooski Beverage Warehouse - Dec. 2004).

Poured a reddish brown color with a white bubbly head and sparce lacing on the glass. Nose begins caramelly and nutty, possibly some butterscotch as well. Very nice sweet caramel, mocha, lots of nut. Sweet and creamy, with just the slightest bit of citrus. Wow one of the best browns I have had.

Small pale tan head. Sweet coffee, faint hops, nutty nose. Clear ruby brown. Earthy dusty stone, slight cherry, burnt toffee, nutty, dark toast, bitter chocolate, fairly thin body, finishing with an assertive boost of hops. Dry and pleasantly refreshing. Not in your face, but nice. A great summer brown.