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Allow me, Horst.
Horst is an American Brown Ale and differs significantly from its English ancestors. The first ales were brewed in Great Britain in the 18th century and were characterized by their strong, dark color. As British beer tastes changed around the 1850s, stouts, porters and brown ales experienced a lull. People generally preferred the lighter versions. It was the age of pale ales.
It wasn't until the 1920s that another turning point came: the Newcastle Brewery brought brown ale out of obscurity and initiated a renaissance of the once popular beer style. In order to produce a contemporary product, the recipe of the southern English London Brown Ale was combined with that of the brown ale common in the north. In contrast to northern brown ale, London brown ale is more caramel, has lower alcohol content and is darker and less tart. The beer from the north, on the other hand, is nuttier, drier and lighter. The Newcastle Brewery combined the best components of both beers and the new brown ale was born, finding fans far beyond the island's borders. The hype spread to America. Here, however, they put their own stamp on the English classic. Texan homebrewers have taken the popular English brown ale as a model and developed their very own beer from it. Their version, the American Brown Ale, is maltier, more alcoholic and much hoppier.
Tasting note from our beer sommelier Marco Liebig:
The beer style originated in Great Britain around the 1700s, when stouts and porters were popular, they were more commonly referred to as brown ale.
Around 1850, British tastes changed and pale ales emerged and became the beer of choice.
The Newcastle Brewery then, so to speak, “reinvented” the brown ale around the 1927 and actually merged 2 beer styles together. The southern English London brown ale, which was caramelier, less hoppy, darker and less alcoholic, and the northern brown ale, which was nuttier instead of caramelly, drier and lighter.
Texan home brewers then brewed the first brown ale in America. They used English brown ales as a template. However, today's brown ale from America doesn't really have anything to do with the original. It is maltier, much stronger in alcohol content and heavily hopped.
After pouring, we are greeted in the glass with a naturally cloudy and brown beer with copper-colored reflections and a fine-pored foam.
Grapefruit juice, filter coffee, grapefruit and melon are noticeable on the nose.
The initial taste is juicy with sweet grapefruit and medium tartness, accompanied by caramel and a little coffee.
In the finish, grapefruit with the peel remains a lingering and pleasant bitterness, as well as subtle roasted bitterness and malty notes.
Our conclusion:
A rare beer style brewed by hand to the highest standards! Strongly malty with enough roasted malt bitterness, plus a fantastically aromatic hop profile. Anyone who likes dark beers with hints of coffee, a malty, caramel character and a pronounced hop aroma will love this beer.
Food recommendation:
A classic BBQ! Dark meat, lamb sausages, spicy marinade, dark sauces, medieval Gouda to finish.
Braukollektiv FreiburgWater, barley malt, wheat malt, hops, yeast
