Craft journey with Brown Ales from Ireland and Belgium: Ballykilcavan, Whiplash, Bacchus, and Chimay
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Bacchus Flemish Old Brown, 4.5% ABV, 375 ml bottle The Cru
Bacchus introduce Old Brown (Oud Bruin) as “A typical Flemish beer with a pleasant taste of wine...and a rich past. Partially matured in oak barrels, this dark brown beer has moderately fruity aromas and a slightly acidic aftertaste.” This type of beer has been brewed in West Flanders since the 17th century.
Colour is brown as you’d expect with a slight tan head that barely says hello before its fades, leaving just a trace on top. It is indeed a mild one and the first taste indicates a tart wine-like acidity (somewhat similar to what you’ll find in the Basque wine Txakoli) but that moderates soon enough. That fresh sweet-sour taste is, the producers say, typical for this type of beer. The sweetness, nothing mega, comes from the touch of caramel from the roasted malt while the sourness is “is less pronounced than the sourness of other Flemish red-brown beers”.
And another odd thing is that there is no label, no info at all on the bare bottle, but it comes on the unusual paper wrap! It informs us it is a mixed fermentation beer with sugar and sweetener and that the ingredients are water, barley malt, sugar, wheat, hop, spices, aromas, sweetener. That sweetener is steviol glycosides, aneis around 150-300 times sweeter than sugar! Check it out here, if you are inclined!
Bacchus Oud Bruin was launched in 1955, making it their oldest beer. The Bacchus Kriek (in my queue) and Bacchus Raspberry are brewed on base of Bacchus Oud Bruin. Once I settled in to it, I found it quite a lively and refreshing beer with a pleasant finish, perhaps more suited to the garden in summer.
This beer was not designed to be a culinary or gastronomic beer, unlike some other beers within the extensive Van Honsebrouck range. When Oud Bruin was developed in the 50s as a beer style, no thought was given to gastronomy when brewing beer.
More about the brewery here.
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Chimay Red “Brown Ale”, 7.0 % ABV, 330 ml bottle Bradleys
The Chimay Red is the oldest of the Chimays. It gets its name from the the colour of the label. The colour of the beer is a multi-hued copper tinted brown (from copper to deep ruby) with a tan head that sinks down to a thin disc without too much delay.
Malty aromas, fruity and toasted, invite you on to the palette where you meet them again in the flavours. Fruits such as orange, peach and apricot now meld with sweet honey, nougat and baguette from the malt. And yet, there’s a delightful balance from first to last, minerality, aromas and flavours all combining in bringing a super conclusion as the aftertaste lingers
The Authentic Trappist Product label certifies that this ale is brewed in a Trappist abbey and that the majority of sales income is intended for social aid. Chimay Red was brewed for the first time in 1862.
The perfect pairing for the Chimay Red is with Chimay cheeses but particularly with the Grand Chimay.
Trappist beers are among those that age gracefully. Brew Dog's Great Beer for the People list three requirements: high ABV, low hops, and bottle conditioned. Trappist beers tick those boxes and “they get softer, sweeter and fruitier. …… They age beautifully.”
Ingredients: water, barley malt, sugar, wheat starch, hop, spices, yeast,
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Ballykilcavan Bambrick’s Brown Ale, 5.8%, 440 ml can, The Cru
"Possibly the beer we're best known for! A beer to savour all year round, but it does really suit these shorter, cooler Autumn evenings. Enjoyed all the way from Laois to Lombardy," says David Walsh-Kemmis of Ballykilcavan.
This Bambrick’s Brown Ale is brewed with barley and water sourced from the family farm in County Laois. It is named after Joe Bambrick who worked on the farm for sixty years. And, believe it or not, the Walsh family have been farming here through 13 generations, since 1639!
Not a Belgian style beer this time but a Brown Ale based on the rich and malty American style. The ingredients are simple: malted barley and wheat, water, hops and yeast.
It is a dark brown colour with a tan head that slinks away rather quickly. Aromas are modest with a little fruit (including slight cherry notes) coming through the chocolate and toffee. Superb on the rich and malty palate, just a soft touch of hops, roasted coffee and burnt toffee all the way through to the dry lip-smacking finish.
IBU of this one is 26. It seems to be quite a successful style for Ballykilcavan and, in a recent post, brewery co-founder David Walsh-Kemmis indicated that they may well have another example or two during 2023. They already make an Export Bambrick’s with an 8% ABV so I must watch out for that!
Very Highly Recommended
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Whiplash Quiet Crowd Robust Brown Ale 5.0%, 330 ml can Whiplash Online
Colour’s more black than brown and there’s a silky and tight knit tan foam that hangs about a bit. The aromas, of modest intensity, are on the malty side, caramelised and toasty, with prominent coffee notes. And so too are the roasty flavours (not too modest now though!) and there’s quite a depth here with chocolate, caramel and bread. Really impressive.
Malt certainly has the upper hand, yet there is a very satisfactory lip smacking finish with enough bitterness to allow the malt shine without having it too sweet, that balance coming despite the heavy use of caramel and aromatic malts.
Not sure the 5% would qualify it as robust though! According to the Beer Bible, you are more likely to find these nowadays in Chicago rather than on this side of the Atlantic.
Very Highly Recommended
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