Anchor Brekle's Brown Ale

Anchor Brewing Co.     San Francisco, CA

Notes:
American Brown Ale

12oz

6.0% ABV
Brewed year round

From their website:

Anchor Brewing’s roots date back to the early 1850s and the California gold rush, when pioneer brewer Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco from Germany. In 1871, he purchased an old beer-and-billiards saloon near Russian Hill and transformed it into the little brewery that—twenty-five years later—would be renamed Anchor. Brekle’s™ Brown is a celebration of Anchor’s 140-year brewing legacy.

Appearance:  Pours a nice, dense brown with some reddish hues…light tan head about a finger width thick that’s not lasting long…(3/5)

Smell:  Complex…a malt smell with dark fruit sweetness...brown sugar, caramel, citrus…this thing is rich and distinct…a full bodied aroma…some medicine astringency…(3.75/5)

Taste:  Wow…that’s some serious flavor…malts, roasted malts, sweetness, citrus hops, caramel, lemon…there is a lot going on here and all of it is good…I feel a bit of the alcohol in the flavor, but thankfully it stays in a complimentary role…the more I sip, the more the citrus hops’ lemon flavor stands out and lasts on my palette…(3/5)

Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied, medium carbonation…some citrus zest on the palette…not too much bitterness, definitely malt along the tongue…lemony after taste…(3.5/5)

Overall:  This is an interesting beer…the flavor stands out from other browns that I’ve had…it’s a candied flavor with tons of sugar and dark fruit sweetness…the citrus hops snuck up on me after a couple sips then lasted the longest on my palette…very unique in many ways…it’s worth trying and I do plan on buying another to cellar, but it’s not something I could drink more than one of in a sitting…maybe I’ll get one now and try it in a year or two to see what happens…the alcohol is high and I’m sure the sugars will only sweeten…(3.5/5)

Score:

(3.33/5)