Yes, the brown ale is fresh and tasty without roasted flavors.
I don't know much about microbreweries in Europe, but they're not all bought by big corporations, I think. I know the situation in the Balkan region better. Heineken buys all the national big breweries in Slovenia and Croatia. Carlsberg buys most of Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. But microbreweries grow like mushrooms after rain everywhere. They have not yet caught the eye of these big corporations. This will probably be the next step in a few years.
However, some of the smaller breweries sell to large European retail chains for local markets.