The brown ale is not the most modern beer, and it doesn’t need to be. It's a lovely, flavourful beer style with great variety in flavour and origin. Most brown ales originate from Great Britain and are a development on even older styles like the mild. Today you’ll find local brown ale variants across the beer drinking world with English, Belgian, and American interpretations being the most common.

Brown ales are brown for a reason: roasted malt. When the malt is roasted it colours the beer and adds to the taste. Thanks to the malt, brown ales are usually complex, and full of interesting aromas. Caramel, whiffs of dark bread, and even coffee, or milk chocolate. 

But there is room for variation within the brown ale category too. The British brown ales tend to be very malt forward bordering on sweet, the US versions are often drier and hoppier, and the Belgian ones are sweet, strong, and spicy. 

Brown ales are great when partnered with full flavoured meat dishes. Everything off the grill; veal, pork, and beef as well as hearty stews, and wintery dishes. Wherever a full-bodied red wine will do the trick, a hearty brown ale might be an even better choice with its roasted, caramel like elements, and hints of sweetness.