Was out with work friends on a Friday night after our first softball game, which ended in a victory for us (via default!). As everyone pretty much knows, you can't really find great beer at your average bar and since they didn't have Sam Adams I decided to try a Newcastle Brown Ale which I hadn't had in a very long time. I normally wouldn't try a new beer at a bar because the smell doesn't always come through clearly and like I said before, they don't typically have a great selection. When I took a big sniff of this beer I was surprised that I got a very doughy, yeasty smell. The aroma was actually a pleasant surprise and made me think this beer might be on to something. The taste is nothing like the smell, there's a light malty flavor that settles right in the middle of the tongue, not very much hop flavor at all. There is not much depth here at all and being a big fan a brown ales, this is probably the worst I've had. No surprise since it is a mass market brown ale. This is definitely miles ahead of your typical carbonated water flavored, piss-looking macro lager but it is nowhere near what a good brown ale should be. I guess it's a decent choice when there's nothing better available but I would still take a Sam or Guinness ahead of this.
