Samuel Adams Brown Ale
The Brown Ale is a traditional beer related to the first beers ever brewed commercially. Brewed with an interesting blend of malts, including pale two-row Harrington, Metcalfe, and Maris Otter malt, Caramel, Munich, and roasted Carafa malts, the Brown Ale shines with a deep mahogany luster. The malt flavor is complex and deep as well, with notes of biscuit, nut, and caramel. With moderate hop bitterness, a deep malt body, and a fruity ale fermentation character, the Samuel Adams Brown Ale satisfies the soul and doesn’t overwhelm the tongue.
3
740 reviews
Boston, United States
Community reviews
Pours brown with a small off-white head. Aroma and Flavor is caramel, nuts, wood, and florals. medium mouthfeel. One of the better SA offerings.
Dark brown/cider color; Medium body; Aroma of malt, & some spice; Flavor of roasted malt, caramel, and some chocolate; Overall, about average for me.
This beer was retired awhile ago, I found it in the bargain bin, one of the more respectable SA products.
Relatively faint malts in the aroma and flavor. Passable but not as much flavor as could be.
I love me so e Sam Adams.... Nice Carmel aroma with dark head.. Good overall beer
Bottle. Pours is medium pale brown, not much off-whote head. Nose is earthy, some nut and malt. Taste is mostly of nut and malt, some slight hoppiness. Clean standard sam adams finish.
Bottle. Golden medium brown colour. Smells of caramel, malts and something a bit unpleasant like soap or something. Taste is malty and fruity. But the whole experience fades out pretty thin in the middle and left is a beer the discription presents pretty well: "Samuel Adams Brown Ale satisfies the soul and doesn’t overwhelm the tongue." Yep.
Pours a medium pale brown, nose is nutty and weak, taste is mild sweetness, weak nutty flavors.
Thanks to iNBe for the trade. A somewhat average brown ale, would not turn down but better examples out there. Serving: Bottle
Pours chestnut-brown with a light tan head. Found the aroma yeasty with a nutty note. Medium palate. Flavor was nutty and malty-sweet. Note of hops in the finish. Like a lot of the offerings from this brewery, a solid beer but doesn’t stand out.
I thought I had reviewed the beer before, but I guess not. Well here it goes. Freshness date of before Jan. 2009.
Poured into a Sam Adams sensory glass. Thin head that fades down quickly, leaving no lace. Color is more of a varnish brown, not to dark.
Smell is of a toasted almonds and carmel. Taste is that same smoked/toasted almond flavor.
Mouthfeel is pretty good, after it settles, the taste of alcohol is definately present. Carbonation is alright.
Brown ales are a favorite of mine and this one is a pretty good representation of one. I definately enjoyed it.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 10-15-2008 00:42:01
A-transparent rusty brown body with perfect cream colored head and great retention.
S- faint smells of nuts and malt.
T- very light taste. Malt and nuts upfront with a hint of bitterness at the end. Faint nutty taste lingers.
P- Medium weight body and medium carbonation. pretty smooth.
O- This is pretty drinkable and easy to enjoy. Its not my favorite english brown but its pretty good and falls in with the style well.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 04-23-2007 18:04:56
If you know me you know I love brown ales and I’m also a big fan of the Samuel Adams line of beers. Therefore Sam Adams Brown Ale must be the best beer ever, right? I wouldn’t go that far, but it definitely is good and is probably one of the better American takes on this unique English style.
POUR, COLOR AND AROMA
Brown ales have a tendency to pour very smoothly and the Sam Adams take on the style fell right in line. It has a brownish-red, cloudy complexion. I was surprised to see how much carbonation action was evident. Brown ales are traditionally lightly carbonated and eventually become totally tepid, yet this beer was quite lively throughout the life of the drink.
The beer formed an average-sized, tan, soapy head which never completely dissipated and left some lacing on the glass. It certainly smelled like a traditional English brown ale with a roasty, malty character, but the aroma was restrained.
TASTE
I cannot stress this enough: the darker the beer, the warmer the temperature it should be drunk. A lot of Americans have a tendency to be turned off by dark beers because they mistakenly drink them too cold and miss out on the flavor. I noticed this was absolutely true of Sam Adams Brown Ale as I drank the first one cold but the second one significantly warmer (although it was still good even at the wrong temperature).
This is a tasty beer at the right temperature. It has a nutty, roasty, very malty palate that is quite sweet. Caramel seems to be a significant component to flavor with the slightest amount of toffee also noticeable. Brown ales are often so sweet they drink like soda, but Sam Adams isn’t quite that flavorful, it’s much more subdued.
FINISH
I know a lot of people who are turned off by the Sam Adams line because their beers tend to be so full of flavor they’re actually difficult to drink for the non-connoisseur. In the case of Samuel Adams Brown Ale the everyday drinker has no reason to be intimidated because it is extremely smooth and goes down like water or juice.
BODY
Surprisingly, the alcohol content and amount of calories to this beer are not listed on the Samuel Adams website. However, I would take and educated guess and say that both are lower than you would think they would be (probably 5% ABV and 150 calories). This is not a heavy beer by any means and does not fill you up nor overwhelm you. It would be an ideal drink to accompany even the heaviest of meals.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I have a feeling a lot of American beer drinkers will be underwhelmed by this beer because they’ll mistakenly drink it too cold. If you just let it sit for about 10 or 15 minutes the improvement in taste will be significant. It’s not as flavorful as Newcastle, but for an American brown ale, it’ll do.
Poured a vibrant reddish-brown color with a slight tan head that left a little bit of lacing. Aromas of biscuit and roasted nuts. Good, rich flavors of caramel, brown sugar, roasted nuts and tiny bit of citrus. Finish is crisp though a bit thin, but besides that it is a solid example of the style.
Boston Beer Company--Samuel Adams--Samuel Adams Brown Ale--Brewmaster’s Collection--Mixed Pack Sampler. 2007 12 oz. Bottle. 5.35% ABV--20 IBU’s? (4.0 / 5.0) Brown Ale. Rich lacy off white head. Clear bright amber red brown hint color. Mellow chocolate nut mild hop front. Mellow toasted biscuit caramel doughy mild sweet light chocolate hot body. Sampled 9/10/2008.
12 oz brown pour from bottle. I like this one. Equal parts caramel, nuts and hops, it holds its own against other well known, yet higher rated browns. Very drinkable, one I would buy again. Another solid offering from Samuel Adams.
Aroma of toasted malts with a touch of nuttiness. Pours dark brown with a small head and good lacing. Flavor is standard toasted malts and biscuit. Palate is sticky.
Poured from 12 oz bottle into nonic pint.
Appearance: Brown and clear with a small, 1 cm head that diminishes to a film very quickly. Leaves cream on the sides of the glass as you drink.
Smell: Bread, caramel, dates, and butter. Not very strong.
Taste: Extremely malty and almost no hop flavor. Mild in flavor, but you can definitely taste the caramel and butter. Maybe even a hint of vanilla and dates. I think it’s delectable.
Mouthfeel: Very little carbonation. Slick and smooth with a texture that sticks to the mouth. Almost thick.
Drinkability: Very mild and nice - one that I’ll be coming back to. A perfect quaff for a mild spring or fall day. Sweeter than normal, but not cloying at all. You still want more after you finish.
Comments: Call me boring, but I love brown ales. They are never out of season and they go with anything. This one is a perfect match for the style. Such a mild-mannered and comfortable beer. This is the "girl next door" of brews.
I recently also had an Abita Turbodog, which is also classified as an English Brown Ale. It was atrocious! The offering by Sam Adams is much more like it.
Pours a deep mahogany. Small white head, the lacing sticks to the glass okay. Aroma is roasted malts, coffee. Flavor is light caramel, malts, nuts. light sweetness. Medium body, fizzy, quickk slightly bitter finish. Really nothing special.
Dark bronze with thin, creamy, light-tan head. Aroma is rich and malty with ripe fruit notes. Semi-sweet with bready, caramelized malts as well as toasted nuts. Fruit flavor isn’t as dominant as the aroma would suggest. Clean finish, easy drinking.
This one is okay, but I just do not like it that much. I buy it when I want a Brown Ale and the place is out of New Castle Brown Ale. I wish they’d sell their seasonal Old Fezziwig Ale year round instead of this and put this one in the seasonal sampler.
(br-btl or/br-lbl, mix pack, 5.35%, 10¢/oz)
lct-cpr, creamy-tan-head, ^co2, med-body, patchy-lace.
aroma: §sweet-malt bready fresh-earthy-piney-hop.
flavor: §bready §earthy-hop T1, §mnrl piney-flrl-hop T2, nutty-pale-malt hop-leaf short T3Tf.
simple, crisp for style, T2T3 very similar to the boston ale.
Not a half-bad example of a brown ale. I was somewhat surprised, but as the macro-that-pretends-to-be-a-micro, Boston Brewery generally does a pretty good job. Dark brown with a small off-white head that dissipates to nothing fairly quickly. Very nice nose with notes of chocolate, coffee, and caramel. Coffee and caramel flavor with some grass and citrus notes. Tingly, carbonated mouth feel. Coffee-bitter finish with some notes of sourness.
Not a huge fan of brown ales, but this one pours with a deep mahogany color and there are definetely traces of caramel in the taste. it is not my favorite from sam adams
Boston Brewing makes a lot of different beers and they are all remarkably average. Not great, but not bad. This is right in there with the rest. From a 12 oz bottle this pours a medium brown color with a big foamy beige head and light lacing. The nose is of caramel malts with a hints of chocolate, nuttiness, light roastiness. The flavor is medium sweet, and again showing the nuts, caramel, an d some chocolate. Light to medium body and mildly sticky. OK, drinkable, and average.
Pours to a medium tan head that laps at the side of the mug. Very smooth taste that is not bitter and doesn’t leave an aftertaste. You can definately smell the caramel in the aroma.
Pours a nice brown with a light brown head and sticky lacing.
Aroma is caramel malt nuts and a little dust.
Flavor is caramel, roasted grains, chocolate, nuts, and caramelized malt. Finish has a slight bitterness and some caramelized toastiness. Decent.
12oz Bottle. This beer is like so many Sam Adams renditions of classic styles, bland and too sweet. The aroma was a minimal nutty browness. Poured copper hickory, with little head. Flavor was of general slightly roasted malt. A bit too much residual sweetness, little distinguishing character in terms of ester or mineral profiles. Finishes quietly. Whatever.
Hints of hops and alcohol with a caramel, malt backbone. The appearance is the best thing about this beer, nice foamy head on top of a nice dark beer with velvet edges. Good, but a little weak in the hops and biscuit characteristics that I like in a brown ale. A little on the thin side as well. Doesn’t knock my socks off.
12 oz bottle. Pours a dark brown color with a medium off white head. It has a molasses and malt aroma. It tastes of biscuit, caramel, chocolate and a little espresso with a roasted flavor. I enjoyed this beer.