Friday, April 11, 2008

Bell's Best Brown Ale

Since Rojas hasn't come through yet on his promise to pick up the blogging, and because I'm just so goddamn happy to have made it through another week (only two to go!) I decided I'd blog another beer. Since pretty soon I'll be back in Cali and the easternmost beers will be out of reach, I figured I would try one more beer from a tried-and-tested brewery that we don't have access to out west. So here comes Bell's Best Brown Ale.

Brown Ales are generally pretty mild as ales go, so it can be tricky to pull of a genuinely satisfying brew. Properly executed, they're subtle-yet-complex. Poorly done, they're bland and forgettable. Bell's version falls somewhere between these poles. It has a very pleasant toasted malt flavor that is accented by a very faint spiciness that comes through in the end. It's got a decent amount of carbonation, which actually ends up working out very well; a nice balance to the maltiness.

Overall, a solid take on a staple brew. Definitely rates high on the drinkability scale. Somewhere above a Nukie but probably below a Downtown on my scale.

1 comment:

DB said...

Hey- randomly came across your site by hitting the "next blog" button up top, and you guys have a post about my hometown brewery. I have killed many a brain cell in that place, but not in a while.

Nice work- keep it up