Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Brewery: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Location: Milton, DE
Style: Brown Ale
Brewery Website
Rating: A+

Dogfish Head is one of my all-time favorite breweries. Today's tasting is their Indian Brown Ale, which is one of my all-time favorite beers. The Indian Brown Ale is deep brown with some red. It is nearly opaque in the glass. The head pours rather short and is a light golden-brown in color. The head quickly fades to something reminiscent of cappucino froth. On the nose there is a sweet coffee aroma, with supporting notes of nuts and wine.

On the palate, the Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale has a distinctive flavor akin to coffee with cream and sugar. There is a nice bitter kick and a sweet maltiness that are well-balanced. There is a fantastic complexity in the flavor, with notes of peanut butter, tobacco, nuts, leather, cherries and pepper-spice all being detectable along with a hint of smokiness. The finish is more of that coffee and cream flavor with some earthiness and a touch of hops. The Indian Brown Ale is medium bodied with some mouth-coating creaminess.

Dogfish Head is well known for producing big beers with big flavor, and the Indian Brown Ale is no exception. The Indian Brown Ale has plenty of that big maltiness that brown ales are known for, but there is also some great complimentary hops to round it out. This one has it all.

Wolaver's Brown Ale

Brewery: Otter Creek Brewing
Location: Middlebury, VT
Style: Brown Ale
Brewery Website
Rating: B+

Wolaver's is a line of organic beers produced by Otter Creek Brewing. The brown ale is one of four beers available year-round from Wolaver's. The Wolaver's Brown Ale pours a deep reddish amber with a hefewiezen-like haziness. There are lots of fine bubbles rising as well. The head is a foamy, golden tan, and is fairly short. The head has citrus and yeast. There are faint aromas of sweet cereal, wine and rye bread as well.

Initially on the palate there is a sweetish maltiness, which is followed immediately by bitter hops. Mineral notes as well as a faint buttery diacetyl flavor are detectable in the background. The dominant flavor character I note is a piney hops bite. The finish has notes of cereal, grapefruit and resinous hops. The Wolaver's Brown Ale has a medium body. There is some slight astringency and a touch of fine fizziness.

I do appreciate the hoppy bite of the Wolaver's Brown Ale. It is a bit out of character, hovever. Brown ales tend to be very malt-forward, but I found the malt being a bit overpowered by the hops here. Despite the hop inbalance, this is quite a tasty beer.

He'Brew Messiah Bold Brown Ale

Brewery: Schmaltz Brewing Co.
Style: Brown Ale
Location: San Francisco/New York
Brewery Website
Rating: B-

Today's tasting is the He'Brew Messiah Bold Brown Ale. The Messiah Bold is dark brown in color, similar to black coffee with just a hint of red. There is a foamy head that is light brownish tan in color. The nose has sweet cereal and roasted notes. There are also faint floral aromas detectable.

On the palate, the Messiah Bold has a rich flavor with both acidity and sweetness. There is a bready malt flavor with a touch of bitterness as well. There are grapefruit and berry notes present, highlighted by the acidity and sweetness. The finish is bread with a good amount of lambic-like acidity. Overall, the Hebrew Messiah Bold Brown Ale is a decent beer, but there is just a bit too much acidic "twang" here for my taste.