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Bottle/Tap: Bottle

I’m always up for a red ale and I picked this up because the bottle was cool looking.  Well, it was red – I just don’t think I let it age long enough.  There are some beers you can buy and crack open the same day.  There are some beers that you should buy and forget about for months and then rediscover in the bottom of the cellar like an old friend you’ve had tied up under stairwell.  This beer was one of the latter.

I poured this in my large pint glass and let it sit for minute.  I’ve seen red ales, but this ale was very red, a clear red.  There was nothing murky looking about this beer.  The aroma was strong.  The bottle tells you that this beer was brewed with tart fruit and hints of oak.  I’m telling you that I found the fruit and none of the oak.  This beer was very tart, not like the sour ale, and wasn’t too pleasant.

It was not a bitter beer; the tartness took over all the other flavors there could have been floating around.  I became accustomed to the flavor; still that tartness of the fruit hit me every time. I have to be honest; I couldn’t bring myself to drink it all and disposed of the rest.

Had I let this beer sit in the cellar for months and brought it out for company, I bet it would have tasted better.  The beer had been chilled and let stand in a glass before I drank it; I just think that letting it age would have helped the flavor.  There were two other bottles in this series and I would imagine the same rules apply.  If you happen to see this and have the extra change to drop, make sure you let it hang for a while.