BREWERY: Heineken Nederland B.V.
STYLE: Brown Ale
ABV: 4.7%
PURCHASE: 60-oz. pitcher, $10.00
SERVING: Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. Standard inch-and-a-half head from tap to pitcher, but smaller head from pitcher to head. First pour, a slow one, yielded less than half an inch. Faster (20-second) pours on the second and third go-'rounds produced a standard inch or so. Better than average in terms of retention, but minimal to non-existent lacing.
APPEARANCE: Translucent and henna-tinted; kind of like a coffee table. Henna is a reddish-brown color. I only know that because of Shemp from The Three Stooges. It was the episode where they operate a dry-cleaning business. A lady walks in and requests a dress be dyed henna. And then Shemp replies with--I don't want to spoil it. You can watch the clip I have posted at the end of the entry! Light-beige head, by the way.
BOUQUET: A bit nutty, with traces of toasted grains. However, the main aromas are toffee and fruit. What fruit? Are you ready for this? Apple, particularly apple skins. It's a brown ale, and apple is prominent. There are largely muted malt notes, as well as a seeming touch of cinnamon.
PALATE: Relatively light body with slowly building, but nonetheless soft, carbonation. No real flavor kicks in until just before the finish; the front and mid-palate are fairly empty. And you know what it was? Apple. Though it smells a bit nutty, it doesn't taste so. Though it smells a bit toffeeish, it doesn't taste so. Apple in a brown ale. This really shouldn't be a surprise. Apple butter is . . . brown. And again, it's more apple skin than apple juice. The aftertaste, which is, palatially speaking, by far the best part of the experience--a saving grace, even--is characterized by . . . apple skins. Okay, maybe there was some degree of malt dextrin.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: Just as Foster's is no longer really Australian, Newcastle is no longer truly English. It's now Dutch. In any case, it's yet another in a growing list of beers I like a little bit less each time I drink it.
Newcastle is a beer you think is great. Until you discover actual great beer. Until you discover craft beer. Then you realize just how average (at best) and underwhelming it really is. It's a crowd pleaser--in my experience, particularly among younger, trendier drinkers on the West Coast. It goes down effortlessly, sure. But that doesn't make it memorable. A safe and inoffensive, but ultimately unremarkable, brew. Although Shemp may have liked it.
GRADE: C-
Newcastle Brown Ale ,,( BROON DOG as its known here in it's traditional home Newcastle) has changed vastly over the years although the maker's won't agree, since S and N breweries went and foreign companies took over the taste that reminds me of home has gone, you need the ingredients from Newcastle, the water from Newcastle and served NOT AS STATED ABOVE, BUT IN A HALF PINT SCHOONER TOPPED UP AS AND WHEN NEEDED.Please study Tyneside's heritage before you post. Thanx
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insight, 007. I'll revisit Newcastle at some point down the road, and will look into Tyneside. --Crock
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