Beer of the Week
Click here to view previous beers. We feature a new beer every week - This week's beer:
First Trax Brown Ale - Fernie Brewing Company, Fernie, B.C.
Price: $10.75 for 6 x 355 ml cans*
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Best Feature: silky smooth, sweet and roasted
Fernie First Trax Brown Ale is one of the beers we like to feature during our beer tasting and education classes and special events, including beer and chocolate pairings. Brown Ales are typically light in body, lower in carbonation and have a blend of sweet and roasted flavours. In the glass, First Trax Brown Ale is a velvety brown colour with a very nice and rich tanned head. The brewers' lace definitely coats the side of the class indicating a good amount of body. The aroma is sweet with subtle hints of roasted malts. The mouthfeel is definitely light, typical of a brown ale - somewhat watery and lacking carbonation which makes it very palatable. The beer starts off sweet and continues to have a nice sweet chocolaty finish with some warm roasted and "nutty" flavours from the blend of eight different types of malts. Although this beer may be complex (the recipe and combination of malts) it definitely will please the tongue with light flavours and a rich smooth texture. Surprisingly light in body, First Trax Brown Ale will go well with a variety of foods; salty snacks, milk chocolate and mild cheese. This beer will definitely cool the tongue with spicy food and is an excellent beer to cook pancakes, pulled pork or chocolate cake.
Beer Fact: Brown Ale is typically a very deceiving beer. The beer usually has a light body but a nice rich mixture of sweet flavours very pleasing to the tongue.
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Best Features: sweet aroma and flavour
We sampled the Fernie Brewing First Trax Brown Ale from a 355ml can which retails at the BC Government Liquor Stores for $10.75 for a six pack. When poured this beautiful brown ale was a clear mahogany colour topped with a thick light tan head which receded. The nose had hints of malt sweetness with a very subtle hint of some chocolate. The carbonation level was fairly low as is common in most English Brown ales. I found the mouthfeel to be light with a mildly sweet malt flavour and the finish to be very subdued. I enjoyed this ale finding the smoothness and the subtle flavour to be a nice change of pace.
Beer fact: Fernie Brewing was established in 2003 and, because of their success, they have already had to expand their capacity building a new brewery complete with a taproom and retail store.
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*Unless otherwise stated, this is the BC Government Liquor Store price quoted.
*Our rating scale is based on a five point system (1 being least enjoyable, 5 being excellent) We rate the beer using the following criteria; overall taste, appearance, mouthfeel, freshness, body, aroma, finish, availability, and price.
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