Reggie's Red
Lucky Labrador Brewing Company

 

 

 

A strange beer, difficult to define and perhaps challenging to appreciate; though if you’re willing to make the effort, Reggie’s Red will reward you with a unique drinking experience. Reggie isn’t entirely red. It’s built on copper with a warm flush of crimson. The sulfury, DMS smell is clearly out of place though workably so.

Red malts set a sugary agenda but are soon counter-balanced by a broad, weighted bitterness. At the tail end of the finish a peculiar suckerpunch of misplaced bitterness is unexpected but welcome. A cloying fruit pectin tartness puts a stranglehold on the mouthfeel.

This is a distinctive beer and hard to pin down. Of course, that’s how they once described the Sex Pistols, so Reggie’s Red is in good company. It’s sort of a punk beer: harshly defiant, at times aggressive, slightly out of tune. But a full immersion in the brusque individualistic clamor of this beer gives a rush worth pursuing.