Brown ale
Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe a lightly hopped ale brewed from 100% brown malt.[1]
Today brown ales are made in
History
In the 18th century, British brown ales were brewed to a variety of strengths, with original gravities (OG) ranging from around 1.060 to 1.090.[2] Around 1800, brewers stopped producing these types of beers as they moved away from using brown malt as a base. Pale malt, being cheaper because of its higher yield, was used as a base for all beers, including Porter and Stout.
The term "brown ale" was revived at the end of the 19th century when London brewer Mann introduced a beer with that name. However, the style only became widely brewed in the 1920s. The brown ales of this period were considerably stronger than most modern English versions. In 1926, Manns Brown Ale had an original gravity of 1.043 and an ABV of around 4%.[3] Whitbread Double Brown was even stronger, an OG of 1.054 and more than 5% ABV.[4] The introduction of these beers coincided with a big increase in demand for bottled beer in the UK. In the 1930s some breweries, such as Whitbread, introduced a second weaker and cheaper brown ale that was sometimes just a sweetened version of dark Mild. These beers had an original gravity of around 1.037.[4] After World War II, most breweries stopped producing these stronger brown ales, with the exception of some breweries in the northeast of England. The majority had an OG in the range 1.030–1.035, or around 3% ABV, much like Manns Brown Ale today.[5]
Description
English brown ales range from beers such as Manns Original Brown Ale, Brown Ale.
They range from deep
See also
- Amber ale
- Mild ale
- Irish red ale
- Flanders red ale
References
- ^ London and Country Brewer, Anonymous, 1736, pages 38-43.
- ^ London and Country Brewer, Anonymous, 1736, page 36.
- ^ Truman "Gravity Book" document number B/THB/C/252 held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
- ^ a b Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
- ^ Whitbread Gravity Book, Document number LMA/4453/D/02/002, held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
- ^ Manns Brown Ale – a bottle with real character Archived December 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine