Mt. Hood Red (Dry Hopped)
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

From inside-out: light caramel brown, orange, lemon. In other words, Mt. Hood Red resembled orange juice-infused iced tea. The ecru cap was small to start, deflated quickly and left mere smatterings of lace.

The nose was redolent of lemon and orange juicy hops. Mt. Hood is an American version of (and nearly identical to) the German hop Tettnang. For my money, it smells and tastes like a more floral, more lemony version of Cascade. That assumes, of course, that this beer is Mt. Hood exclusive. Although it wasn't a nostril-buster, the dry hopping did impart a wonderful citrus fruitiness.

The malt structure was relatively light for the style, but was more than adequate. A smidgen of caramel flavor was enough for me. Like wdmrock's dry hopped pale ales, the flavor profile tilted heavily toward the hop side of the malt-hop scale. Oranges and lemons led the way on the palate as well. I don't remember Tettnang hops tasting quite like this.

There was a good sweet-bitter balance, with the former blending imperceptably into the latter as the mouthful progressed. There was plenty of hop flavor, but no real bitterness until the finish. The coda was semi-dry and fairly clean. A little more 'hop oil linger' would have been nice, but you can't always get what you want (but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need).

I don't have much to say about the mouthfeel. It seemed a shade too light, but not horribly so. The cask carbonation was too soft, too understated. I'm not sure, however, that more C02 would have changed my opinion much.

Mt. Hood Red (Dry Hopped) was a nice surprise this afternoon. Since the other red ales that I've had at Rock Bottom have been pretty close to average, I wasn't overly excited about this one prior to drinking it. My kind of red is one that showcases its hops. Thankfully, this beer does just that.