Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale vs. Bar-None Brown

Well, I have finally got around to comparing Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale with Bar-None Brown, my attempt at loosely cloning that delicious brew. Here are the results:

Appearance: Bar-None is ever so slightly darker, but really only by a few percent. They are nearly indistinguishable in color and clarity. Bar-None's head is pretty large, but I attribute that to bottle conditioning. Judgment: even.

Smell: Indian Brown Ale's aroma centers on a rich chocolatey malt flavor with just hints of coffee and a subtle earthy, vegetabley hop aroma. Bar-None's is extremely hoppy and doesn't have near the subtle roasted-malt aroma. It is strong and quite floral and vegetabley; a much lighter hand will be needed on the hops. Judgement: Indian Brown is much more malty and subtly complex.

Taste: Indian Brown has a nice complex hop flavor crowning a chocolatey, slightly caramelly malt base. Flavor spectrum tends toward the malt. Bar-None has coffee flavor but not much in the way of chocolate, and is not subtle or smooth at all; hops abound and are floral and rough-around-the-edges. Judgement: Indian Brown is exceptionally smooth and balanced, whereas Bar-None is too hop-centric and quite rough.

Mouthfeel: Indian Brown is extremely smooth; it has a medium to medium-thich body and a wonderfully smooth, silky texture, as well as a nice level of carbonation that renders this extremely creamy and fantastic. Easily one of my favorite mouthfeels. Bar-None is a little lighter in body but has a mega carbonation that yields mega creaminess; this is probably due to its bottle-conditioned nature. It is rare for me to think of a beer as over-carbonated, but over the months Bar-None has become so. Judgement: I prefer Indian Brown Ale to Bar-None, but this is a category in which Bar-None stands up pretty well.

Drinkability: Bar-None's rough hopping makes it notably less drinkable than Indian Brown. Indian Brown welcomes each and every sip, whereas Bar-None's bitterness and overdone, vegetabley hops challenge the palate in an unpleasant way. Judgement: Indian Brown, hands down.

If I do an Indian Brown Ale-insprired recipe again, I would drop the roasted barley and up the chocolate malt to 12 oz or maybe even a pound. Crystal would probably stay the same and victory malt might have to go, and I might want to go with Maris Otter rather than domestic 2-row. Bittering hops should come down to maybe 10 AAU and I might want to go with Fuggles and maybe a little Cascade for aroma and flavor, perhaps pared down to 4 AAU for each addition.