We lightly hop this one to let the caramel and coffee flavors of the roasted malts come through. While it is most definitely brown, it has a lighter body and is mildly sweet.  5.0% ABV | 18 IBUs,

Malts: Pale, Crystal, Wheat, Brown, Chocolate, Carastan

Hops: Cluster, Willamette

Yeast: English Ale

O.G. 13.0 Plato  F.G. 3.2 Plato

Served: pint $6.00

Brewed to emulate the brown ale style of British brewers in London in the late 17^th century.  Today  brown ales and nut brown ales are brewed in Belgium and North America as well as England, and they are a gracious mix of malt, chocolate, and caramel.  Brown ales range in color from dark brown to amber, with the color being a direct result of the amount of dark malt used in the mash.  More on that later.

Brown Ales are “gateway” beers, responsible for introducing many to the world of craft-brewing with their subtlety, relatively low hoppiness (bitterness) and sensual dark appeal.  Back to the color…our first batch was intended to have “x” amount of dark malt in the recipe.  For whatever reason, decidedly less than “x” amount found its way into the slurry, and when the finished product was revealed, the now-famous exclamation from the brewhouse was “That’s not brown.” (or words to that effect)  And the name stuck. This was the first “specialty” beer we brewed to complement the four beers on tap when we first opened, and due to the popularity of this beer amongst our staff, quickly became the top seller.

The artist commissioned with creating an image for this beer was challenged to create a connection with something that is ordinarily brown, thus the blue bear – which is decidedly NOT brown.  We don’t serve blue bears brown beer in this bar.

Another interesting note about all things not brown that usually are.  In front of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver stands a huge blue bear, erected in 2005, peering into the glass façade with anticipation of what unique artistic and cultural treasures reside within.  Now we aren’t going so far as to suggest that THAT artist drank our Not Brown, but we’ll step aside lest the facts get in the way of a good story.