The other night while I was at Brooklyn Bowl with Leah, I noticed that they now had a house beer.

The house beer is called Brooklyn Bowl Pale Ale, and it’s brewed by Kelso of Brooklyn.

So as far as pale ale’s go it’s a pretty standard style…American Pale’s are hop forward, English Pales are on the malty side…all are in the 4.5%-6% alcohol range. But the Brooklyn Bowl Pale ale is a bit more unique than your average pale.

It was dark inside Brooklyn Bowl, but the beer appeared to be a pale amber color. As expected it was medium bodied, but the unique part about this beer was the hops. In pale ales you typically get citrus or pine notes from the hops, but the Brooklyn Bowl Pale Ale has something much more herbal going on.

At first I thought it was all dank herbs…things like mint, basil, and other savory things (when I say this I mean not added into the beer, but rather natural flavors from the hops)…but as the beer warmed it started to show a very unique licorice scent and flavor.  It’s possible that this licorice like flavor was drawn from the combination of hops and malts, but it was a bit reminiscent of root beer except not sweet at all. According to Brooklyn Bowls’ menu this particular brew is made with NY state hops (varietal was not specified).

While I’m not sure this pale ale is for everyone I did enjoy two pints while I was there, and would drink another two next time I go.  I like seeing breweries do interesting things with session beers, and that is exactly what Kelso did with this one,  and I hope beer lovers seek out.

———————————————-

Kelso’s Brooklyn Bowl Pale Ale only available at Brooklyn Bowl, and costs $6 a pint.

Brooklyn Bowl is located at
61 Wythe Ave
(between 12th St & 13th St)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

———————————-

• this is part of my series called What Ales You.
  • read more of these posts here.
• more on Brooklyn Bowl here.
• more on Kelso of Brooklyn here.