English Brown Ales

 

Once upon a time, all beers were dark beers. Malt is the ingredient that gives beer color. Malt, or germinated barley, needs to be dried before it can be used to brew beer and prior to the 17th century, crude malt drying techniques left the malt dark or smoky. The result - a dark, or smoky beer. While the flavors of brown beers centuries ago probably varied a good bit from what we know today, the color of beer was often brown, or darker.

 

Today, malt is available in a wide range of strains and colors, with the darker malts providing the color of a Brown Ale. Brown Ales are brewed with caramel or darker malts to create both color and flavor, though Brown Ales lack the heavy use of roasted malts that are more commonly used in Porters and Stouts. This gives English Brown Ales a rich color and flavor, without making a beer that is overly heavy and dark.

 

History

 

As with many other beer styles including Pale Ales, Porters and Stouts, Brown Ales originated in England and were being brewed in some form well before the 17th century and the advent of other English styles. Knowing what beers were like prior to the 17th century is very difficult, because few records exist today of exactly how those beers were brewed or what types of beers were popular, but we can guess and infer what early beers were like based on the technologies and resources that we know were available to early brewers as well as from historical references in literature, diaries or other historical documents.

 

We do know that Brown Ales, in general, originated in England. There are references made to them in books and documents dating back to the 17th century and it can be inferred that many darker beers brewed prior to the development of the Porter style (1720) were brewed with ingredients and processes that would have yielded something very close to the modern English Brown Ale. Prior to 1700, most available malts were dark or brown in color, so most every beer would have been dark in color.

 

Porters were starting to become popular in England in the 1720's with Stouts eventually following Porters. During this time, references to many versions of Brown Ale also begin to appear and it starts to become clear that the Brown Ale is something of a lighter version of the Porter in many cases. Today, the Mild version of the English Brown Ale is particularly like a lighter or lower gravity version of a Porter.

 

Though the terminology used in the 18th century is different than the terminology today, it is clear that Brown Ales were being brewed at that time that are similar to the Brown Ales we know today. A brewer might have called his Porter or Stout a "Brown beer" in reference to the color alone, but some brewing recipes exist from the period that are obviously intended to produce what we know today as a Brown Ale.

 

Brown Ales virtually disappeared in the 19th century as Pale Ales became popular

 

Food Pairings

 

Brown Ales pair beautifully with red meats and chocolate. English Browns are great with pork, while American Browns tend to favor beef. Great foods with almost any Brown Ale would be apple pie, pork with brown sauce, beef vegetable soup and cheddar cheese.

 

English Brown Ale Variants

 

English Brown Ales are typically divided into three main categories: Mild, Southern English and Northern English Brown Ales.

 

When talking about English Brown Ales, we normally exclude the American version of the Brown Ale, which is classified with American Ales. The American Brown Ale is typically a much richer, maltier and hoppier version of the English style. Like many other beer styles, the American version is something of an exaggerated version of the style. To some extent, the American version of the Brown Ale is somewhere between the English version and a Porter in terms of malt character and strength.

 

Mild

 

A light-flavored, malt-accented beer that is readily suited to drinking in quantity. Refreshing, yet flavorful. Some versions may seem like lower gravity brown porters.

 

In modern terms, the name "mild" refers to the relative lack of hop bitterness (i.e. less hoppy than a pale ale, and not so strong). Originally, the "mildness" may have referred to the fact that this beer was young and did not yet have the moderate sourness that aged batches had. Milds are somewhat rare these days and it is extremely hard to find examples of them in the United States outside of the occasional brewpub version. Moorhouse Black Cat is one of the few widely available commercially bottled examples in the US.

 

Southern English Brown Ale

 

In England, the traditional Brown Ale is often split into two categories based on geography; the Northern English Brown Ale and the Southern English Brown Ale.

 

The Southern English Brown Ale is a rarity indeed, both in the United States and in England. Even in England, bottled versions are rare and in the United States it might be possible to find one in a brewpub from time to time, but none are bottled.

 

Historically, the Southern Brown Ale is a malty sweet, rich beer that is not typically as strong as the Northern Brown Ale. It can be confused with a lighter version of a Sweet Stout due to its malty sweet character.

 

Northern English Brown Ale

 

The Northern English Brown Ale is the type of beer that many beer drinkers expect when they think of an English Brown Ale. Widely available in the United States in bottles are Newcastle Brown and Samuel Smith Nut Brown, as well as many American micro brewery examples. The Northern Brown Ale relies more on hops than its southern counterpart and while they usually have a malt base much like a Southern, the more assertive hop character creates the perception of a drier and nutty character than the Southern version. In fact, many of these beers are referred to as "Nut Browns" and that phrase can even appear in the name of the beer.

 

How much do you really know about English Brown Ales? Take our test on English Brown Ales and find out. Our test on Brown Ales is part of the World Class Beer Certification Program. Take our tests on other beer styles by visiting each beer style page. Have fun with beer by learning more about it!