Saw Works Brewing – Brown Ale

Howdy fellow snobs!

You may have seen our previous post on Saw Works Brewing Company’s Pale Ale – pretty freaking good beer. Head brewer Dave Ohmer tells us that if we like that, batch #3 is certainly going to hit the spot. However, in the mean time, let’s mull over Dave’s second brew out of Saw Works – a brown ale.

I’m not going to lie, brown ales aren’t my top five favorite beer styles. This may lie in the fact that I drank Newcastle when I was in college which doesn’t taste the same coming up as it does going down. However, I do have some friends who are partial to brown ales so I do have them from time to time. I also still won’t turn down a Newcastle but Don will (oh, he’s here too, did I mention that?)

So, on with the beer. We’re armed tonight with a growler of this brown ale. I did have the opportunity to sample a taste the other night with Dave and the first thing I noticed, was a very sweet aroma to this beer. Don and I are trying to put our finger on exactly what it reminds us of. He’s rambling about stinking hard chocolate candy he had – I think someone played a trick on him, maybe to get him to take some medicine, not sure. I’m getting a hint of brown sugar and some chocolate notes. This beer does have the dark brown color you’d expect from a brown ale but it’s more transparent than other browns I’ve had. The taste of this beer – wow – there’s a great dry/bitter flavor to this beer and if I didn’t know better I’d almost call this a nut brown. There’s seems to be a tobacco taste to this beer too – mild – I know it may sound weird but it’s ok, different, interesting and really good. The bitterness of this beer really lingers on the tongue but plays with the sweetness better than two brothers fighting over a toy firetruck.

Final snobs: Two thumbs up from these snobs. Think we’re changing our minds about brown ales. Next time you’re hankering for a Newcastle, give this one a shot.