On Tap is a regular column featuring our recommendations on the most unique new draft beer offerings from local pubs.
Our Recommendation: Boxcar Brewing Company’s Brown Ale
Where: Ryan’s Pub, 124 West Gay Street, West Chester, PA
I’ve been on a quest lately to sample brown ales, so I was excited to see Ryan’s Pub in West Chester had tapped a brown ale from the local Boxcar Brewing Company. Boxcar bills their brown ale this way:
“A session style brown ale that has lots of subtle flavors; like walnuts, cedar, caramel, cocoa and dried cherries. We made this beer for when you want a richer flavored beer that goes well with dinner and after.”
The Boxcar Brown Ale poured dark brown with a bit of a mocha head. This ale was medium bodied with roasted malts and I tasted slight hint of nuts and chocolate. This is a sessionable American Brown Ale, coming in at 5% ABV.
My obsession with brown ale comes from my ongoing dedication to Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale. This ale is in my top three beers of all time, and it struck me recently that I should explore the category further. The first few brown ales I sampled recently, Ellie’s Brown Ale and Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale, both lacked in complexity and depth compared to the DFH.
When I recently told Dan at Pinocchio’s Beer Garden in Media about my quest, he informed me that the DFH Brown Ale is really a cross of Scotch Ale, American Brown Ale and Indian Pale Ale, and not many beer can compare.
That being said, Boxcar Brewery’s Brown Ale does taste like a young DFH in taste. It’s not a complex and mature, but it’s one of the mosre enjoyable brown ales I’ve tasted to date.
To read last week’s On Tap featuring Iron Hill’s Cinnamon Vanilla Porter and Old Tom Barleywine, click here.
