Sierra Nevada Brown Ale

Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Chico, California USA

Bottle.

Pours deep brown with red highlights and a good-sized head. Grassy aroma with hints of nuts and brown sugar. The flavor is crisply bittered, again somewhat nutty, a mild molassas sweetness running underneath. This one is aggresively carbonated, prickly to my mouth.

This is reasonably well crafted but simply doesn’t not seem special to me in any way.

12 oz bottles: Medium brown w/ a lasting very light beige head. Lightly chocolate and roasted coffee malts w/a nutty and lightly toasted malt aroma and just a hint of burnt. But all malts seem a little bit dull. Very light herbal hop aroma sneaks in beneath the malt. Overall well balanced at the beginning, but turns decidedly bitter in the semi dry finish & aftertaste. Herbal hop aftertaste. Light toasty and nutty malts w/ a hint of nutty in the mid palate. Medium body, lower medium carbonation, fairly smooth m/f. Flavorful yes, but flavorwise seems a bit one dimensional between malts and hops.

12oz 2006 bottle. Hazy, deep blood red brown hue. Spiral webbed ring of off-white head. Cocoa and caramel nose. Medium bodied and smooth. Bitter finish. Toasty malts. Creamy chocoalte flavors. Sticky and cloying with a mild hop finish.

Brown pour (of course). Malty and nutty aroma. Flavors of caramel, sweet nutty malt, a little roastyness and hops. Easy to drink. A basic brown that’s not very interesting.

Deep mahogany with ruby hints and a nice foamy beige head. Lightly spicy, grassy, roasted aroma with hints of caramel. Big roasted flavor with chocolate, toffee and caramel notes throughout. A nice dose of hops bitterness rounds it out very well before the long malty finish. Medium bodied with a nice level of carbonation. Very good.

2006 Bottle. Pours thin brown with a nice head and evanescent lacing. Aroma is buttery nut with hints of copper. Buttery nut flavor. Too brackish and coppery for my taste. Thin mouthfeel. Eh.

Dark clear mahogany with a high beige head. Caramel, toasted malt and a hint of grass in the nose. Flavor has notes of light roastiness, chocolate, toffee and a very prominent dosage of resinous bittering hops - which makes this brown ale officially "not boring". Medium bodied with a smooth texture and subtle carbonation. Nice lacing and head retention. A good session beer, and an interesting new twist on the style.

2006 vintage. The beer pours to a very filtered brown body with a red hue. The beer has a really thick and lasting off-white head. The aroma is malty with a light nutty characteristic. More maple syrup and light brown sugar than nuts... The flavor is malty with caramel and brown sugar with a light maple syrup. Slight toasted pecans or hickory nuts. The palate is pretty full bodied and nicely textured.