The rich and aromatic Barracuda Brown Ale from Wild Ride Brewing is mildly nutty with hints of toffee, raw chocolate and more.

Wild Ride Brewing Company recently released Barracuda Brown Ale, highlighting a style that doesn’t receive much attention these days. Because American craft beer tastes trend toward stronger, highly hopped ales, brown ales tend to be drowned out. But a good brown ale is delicious and versatile, and a welcome change of pace.

But what is it? In a sense, it’s a catch-all name for any moderate-strength malty ale, whose color, as you might expect, falls on the spectrum between pale ales and porters.

In The Beer Bible, Jeff Alworth writes, “What qualities unite the various beers sold under the title ‘brown ale’? A quality of malt comfort. Much can be done with darker grain to create layered flavor, and browns express them with notes of toast, caramel, raisins, walnut, chocolate, or bread crust.”

Historically, many beers were likely various shades of brown, due to difficulty controlling the malting process. Smoky, browned and even burnt malts would produce brown, rough beer. Improvements in malting through the 18th and 19th centuries ushered in an era of consistency and beers of a distinctly paler hue.

Modern brown ales originated in the early 20th century in England, with sweeter, lighter beers offering up flavors of chocolate and caramel. American brewers took this as inspiration while putting their own spin on the style. As such, American browns tend to be stronger and hoppier, though malt should still be the prevailing characteristic.

Wild Ride head brewer Mike White’s approach to brewing a brown starts, unsurprisingly, with developing the malt flavor.

“It can be nutty, sweet and caramel or toffee-like,” he said via email. “Roast flavors can dominate like light coffee or dark chocolate. Then depending on that decision it will determine how to complement the hop balance.”

“For Barracuda Brown the roast, chocolate and bready malt flavors is what we wanted to take the focus,” said White. “We then used the hops to create a somewhat herbal-like balance, yet used bitterness to offset any sweetness.”

Assistant brewer Josh Harned brewed the beer itself, blending two-row, Maris Otter, Victory, pale chocolate, brown and biscuit malts with CTZ, Cascade and Sterling hops for a medium-strength ale with 6.1 percent alcohol by volume and 30 IBUs.

I picked up a growler of the draft-only beer to drink at home. Barracuda looks the part, pouring a deep brown color, with a creamy, light tan head of cappuccino-like foam. It has a rich and malty aroma that’s mildly nutty with roasty notes, hints of toffee, raw chocolate, and light fruity esters with some toasted bread.

My impression on tasting is “chocolate bread” or biscuit, with a really nice dry roast character that reminds me of dark-toasted bread crumbs. Earthy hops contribute a well-balanced bitterness without being prominent. Overall it’s a highly drinkable beer built on layers of chocolate malt and bread crust flavors that’s dry and moreish and keeps you sipping.

If ever there was a type of beer that could be considered a “comfort style,” my pick would be for this one. It’s excellent for fall as well. White calls Barracuda a “very enjoyable autumn ale,” with which I agree.

While most brown ales tend to be seasonal or specialty brews, if you’re looking for other examples to try, Cascade Lakes Brewing Company and Bridge 99 Brewery both offer year-round versions with 20 Inch Brown and Broken Top Brown, respectively.

And several other breweries currently have limited-release examples available or on deck as well: Worthy Brewing Company with Beertopia Brown Ale, 10 Barrel Brewing Company with Rio Brown on nitro, and Deschutes Brewery with Dee Wright Imperial Brown.

Barracuda Brown Ale is available at Wild Ride in Redmond, and kegs may find their way to other locations around the area. It’s a terrific beer for the season, and would pair well with that leftover Halloween candy.