Beer Review: Melvin New England Breakfast Ale

This limited edition beer originally won a Wyoming homebrewing contest in collaboration with the Brewing Network.

As soon as I read the name of this beer, “New England Breakfast Ale,” I braced myself for a hazy IPA that tasted more like grapefruit juice than beer.

Boy, did Melvin Brewing ever see me coming. The Alpine, Wyoming, brewery canned up what it describes as a brown ale with maple syrup and locally-roasted coffee. Yes, it sure would do a body right for breakfast.

The back story is that Melvin held a homebrew event last year called The Boil Rumble. Part of the winning prize was that the chosen beer would be brewed and distributed by Melvin. East Bay Homebrew Club, located in Barrington, R.I., was the contest winner, and that’s why the 14 states in Melvin’s distribution areas now have access to four-packs of the beer for a limited time.

Based on my experience with the brew, it’s a winner in more ways than one, and is well worth the $16.99 retail price for four. Once I recovered from the surprise of what the beer’s name was describing, the next thing I noted was that once in the glass, the beer erupts in a beautiful, chocolate-y aroma with a fluffy tan head that lingers.

Based on the dark color of the beer, I was a little surprised that the body was a bit more carbonated than I had anticipated. I think for a moment, it created an illusion on my palate that the flavors were less robust than they were. But once the beer takes hold, a roasty coffee flavor mingles in with the chocolate, along with a nutty sweetness. By halfway through my beer, I was hooked.

At just 5.4% alcohol by volume, it’s actually quite an easy drinker with a crisp body and a slightly creamy finish. Other than a detection of just hint of metallic after-taste, New England Breakfast Ale is simply a lovely, satisfying beer. And yes, it would probably go quite well with a side of bacon.

“This 5.4 ABV beer is perfect for the upcoming winter months, great for enjoying at breakfast, after midnight or any time of day,” Steph Amaral, President of the East Bay Homebrew Club, said in a news release. “This is a huge deal for us as a homebrew club and our first major win.”

The Boil Rumble itself is a tribute to when Melvin founder Jeremy Tofte started brewing using a 20-gallon homebrew system in his Thai restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming. Within a couple of years, a full-fledged brewery was born. The national contest is a collaboration with homebrew equipment supplier MoreBeer! and internet radio station The Brewing Network.

“Both of these companies helped propel Melvin Brewing forward, so it’s really cool that we get to work with them now and stoke out the next wave of pro brewers,” Tofte said.