This Christmas season, nurture the red-headed stepchild of the beer world

Most beer geeks I know (including me) are not frothing-at-the-mouth proselytizers. In other words, we sort of nudge people who aren't into craft beers toward the finer stuff, but we don't push. And when we nudge, we tend to focus on using what we call "gateway" beers to turn people on to better beer.

Undoubtedly, most of you HBG readers will be gathering with family over the next week for the holidays. Some of you (hell, most of you) are, like us, beer geeks who may want to introduce the uninitiated to stuff that will lead them to greener pastures. With that in mind, what, you ask, should you use as a gateway beer?

I champion the neglected and perhaps most abused style in the beer geek world: the brown ale. Talk to most beer geeks and they'll usually pooh-pooh brown ales (no pun or play on words intended there). You'll hear things like, "Too bland," or, "Meh," or, "Just doesn't do it for me. Gimmee an IPA." Yes, brown ales tend to be "middle-of-the-road" beers when it comes to flavor. They're usually on the malty side (though I've had browns with some hop heft), tend to feature a roasted nut and caramel flavor, and tend not to have a high ABV percentage. What gets lost in the criticism is how drinkable and agreeable brown ales can be, and drinkability is what you're shooting for if you're a beer geek trying to nudge newbies toward finer beer.

Before you head over the river and through the woods, I recommend to you three excellent brown ales that are well-suited as gateway beers (skip the Newcastle, by the way):

Bell's Best Brown Ale. I had this at the Chatham Tap back in October when they put this on tap after blowing their keg of Oberon. This is my favorite of the three browns I'm recommending because it has a higher hop fruitiness than most browns and finishes with a beautiful chocolate flavor.

Bluegrass Brewing Company Nut Brown Ale. I tried this at Deano's Vino last Friday and was not disappointed. Slightly sweet, nutty, very little hop bitterness. Not as good as the Bell's Best Brown, but very smooth.

Avery Brewing's Ellie's Brown. We warmed up with this at the last roundtable we held at Spencer's Stadium Tavern. As I noted in my review, this beer is outstanding in the brown ale style, exhibiting a great blend of caramel, vanilla, and toffee characteristics.

Have a Merry Christmas, Fabulous Festivus, and/or Cool Kwanzaa. We hope to see you at our New Year's Eve bash!

Roundtable #31 - Brown is Boring - Wychwood Hobgoblin

Warning: post contains soccer talk

Last evening four of the knights met up with six guests at Mass Ave's Chatham Tap for an evening of introductions and beer conversation. We were led by Cavalier Distributing's Mat Gerdenich, who provided us with a full plate of beer topics - from the struggles of a beginning beer business, the methods in which beer is introduced to a state, to the upcoming beer price hike (futher explained in this post at the Clipper City beer blog). Mat's advice? Stock up now, and expect to see price hikes in January.

We also reviewed a few beers. Because the Chatham Tap is an American bar aspiring to be British, I started the night with BBC's Nut Brown Ale - an English style brown made by an American microbrewery. This was a coke-colored, dead and dark looking beer, with a caramel and nut nose. It had a chewy mouthfeel and a smooth finish, with a taste that echoed the nose. It was a very agreeable beer, but I just felt like it needed a bit more "life" in it. Or maybe some hops, although that probably wouldn't fit the style profile.

Our featured beer was Wychwood's Hobgoblin, an authentic English brown ale. It had the same coke-color as the BBC, with a faint metallic alcohol nose, and a thin head. While the nose was somewhat promising, the beer was watery, with no front or middle, and a sweet peppery bite on the back.

Wychwood's website had this to say about the Hobgoblin:

Hobgoblin is strong in roasted malt with a moderate hoppy bitterness and slight fruity character that lasts through to the end. The ruby red coloured Hobgoblin is full-bodied and has a delicious chocolate toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity character.

Sound really good, doesn't it? Too bad I didn't drink what they're describing. In any case, this wasn't a bad beer - it just wasn't a great beer. 2.3 Mugs

As for the Chatham Tap, it seems like a pretty nice place - soccer friendly, clean and classy, decent food... I'm not so sure about the England soccer scarf over the bar. They couldn't have gone with US Soccer? But maybe I just dislike Eurosnobs, and I'm afraid that the place is run by one. I guess in the end it's nice that we've got enough soccer-friendly options that I can complain about the scarves on the wall. At least they were nice enough to put the MLS game on the tv.

One of our guests noted that he had come in on a Saturday to catch a Fulham match and was turned away because football was on... not a good sign, especially considering that they've got Liverpool and Manchester United scarves on the wall. Hopefully this was just a mixup within staff - I can't imagine the owner is paying extra money for soccer channels just so people can be turned away. It makes me nervous though - I had considered coming downtown to watch a game, but knowing I might not be able to means I'd rather stay on the couch at home.

Chatham Tap also has a nice beer selection, but I wish there was a little more varience in the options. It's nice that they've got 15 English beers, but I anyone really interested in 15 English beers? Having drank my first two browns, I looked for a "go to" beer, a beer that I knew I was going to like. There really weren't a lot of options there, and I ended up with a Bell's Two Hearted - not a bad beer, but not a favorite, either. There's not really anything on the menu that's going to knock you out.

Having said all that, I enjoyed the Chatham Tap, and I'll be back - but there's definitely room for improvement.