McNeills Summer Brown Ale

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

Dark brown colour, deep roasted chocolate aroma, chocolate start, earthy, bitter hop middle, and a clean finish.

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.

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

Hell yeah. I really don't enjoy many american brown ales, but this one's a keeper. Deep brown in color, with a thick off white head. Aroma is chocolate and a good bit of roasted malt. Very mild hops. Slightly earthy taste. Roasty and clean, with some chocolate and nuttiness. Mild fruitiness. Body is pretty light, with moderate carbonation. Lingering chocolate aftertaste. Slightly dry.

Good nose. Molasses chocolatey. A little scotch. Great clear brown color. Burnt slightly bitter with a creamy crisp finish. Though not a classic brown, a good little ale

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.

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.