Respectable Middle Eastern medium body based on classic English amber. Subtle peach, lychee and passion fruit illusions hide inside mildly creamed cookie dough yeast and sweet caramel-toffee malting.
Tag Archives: red ale
YARDS ROWHOUSE RED PHILADELPHIA STYLE ALE
Confusingly indistinct ‘ruby farmhouse ale’ lacks stylistic specificity. Closer to a British-styled pale ale with its nominal barley toasting and mild hop spicing, but not far removed from an English Bitter’s dewy peated minerality and rye graining. Belgian ale yeast may induce lulling citric florality.
PORTERHOUSE RED ALE
Unspecific medium-bodied Irish Red Ale immediately goes askew as no prominent flavor profile shines through. Mild hop-spiced honeyed tea entry picks up musty fig-soured dried fruiting, grape-stemmed cherry stone remnant and wispy orange oiling. Dry grain-toasted bottom and ethereal mossy peat leathering mired by coarse astringency.
GREAT RIVER ROLLER DAM RED ALE
OK tin-canned version of amber-hazed moderate body proves to be a dependable, if subdued, Irish Red Ale blending saison-like fruiting with toasted caramel malts. Wispy orange-soured grapefruit peel entry fades into cherry-dried green apple tartness above peppery juniper hop spicing. Black tea dalliance and earthen minerality negatively affected by coarse metallic rusting as well as funky compost waft.
WILLIAMSBURG ALEWERKS RED MARKER ALE
Approachable amber-ruddied red ale brings tart fruited caramel malting to honeyed maple nuttiness, finishing closer to a delicately sweet brown ale. Tart red cherry, red apple and orange fruiting contrasts astringent alcohol burn and ESB-like leafy hop bite. Oats-toasted praline, pecan and walnut illusions round out its balanced profile.
NAPA SMITH LOST DOG RED ALE
Exquisitely perplexing copper-hazed pleasantry brings dry fruited alacrity to honeyed maple malts and wintry spicing. Naval orange-peeled bittering softly embraces red apple, cherry and apricot musk as well as tertiary cinnamon-swirled nutmeg-allspice nicety. Resinous pine undertones, peat whiskey niche and medicinal 7.2% alcohol astringency deepen backend of assertive (if somewhat dischordant) delight that’s stylistically robust.
HARPOON CELTIC ALE
Messy Irish-styled red ale tries blending too many disparate elements. Pasty Scotch-licked entry tersely abandoned for wavered orange-dried cherry souring and cardboard-like caramel malting. Spiced apple respite adds pleasantry. But scattered vegetal snip downgrades initial pulse and acrid tea-like herbal spell comes undone.
FLYING FISH RED FISH
SAMUEL ADAMS MIGHTY OAK ALE
Convincingly well-balanced ‘deep red ale’ brings honeyed caramel malting to cereal-grained barley roast, oaken vanilla midst, tertiary Maraschino cherry sweetness and chewy cookie dough reminder. Earthen backdrop deepens over time. A bit slick but nicely rounded.
FORT COLLINS RED BANSHEE ALE
ROGUE CAPTAIN SIG’S NORTHWESTERN ALE
Wily amber-hazed red ale appears brassier and heavier malted than iconoclastic Rogue Dead Guy. Perfectly robust blend of earthen mineral graining, woody Amarillo hop spicing and toasted caramel malting sidles frisky orange-peeled grapefruit bittering. Subsidiary cherry, apple, and berry illusions perk up dark floral undertones as toffee-butterscotch sweetness gathers strength. At finish, harsh alcohol burn deepens ripe fruited plain of limited edition liquid.
BARRIER BULKHEAD RED ALE
On tap, complex, yet approachable, red ale contrasts mildewed fungi acridity, mild hop-charred bittering and vinous cider sharpness against candi-sugared orange-oiled sour malting. Red-green apple tartness and teasing grapefruit-peach hunch backend ruddy-hazed moderate-bodied ‘bitter’ possibly better defined as Flemish Sour Ale. Further sips revealed pine-combed peach, pineapple and tangerine tang.