Crystal Copper
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

Significantly hazy tawny, clearing to brighter orange along the bottom edge of the pint glass. I thought that it was going to be crystalline copper, but I like the actual color much better. The cap was a fat one finger of golden ecru that left substantial rings of lace indicating each mouthful. A very nice look.

According to the barmaid, this beer is a dry-hopped preview of the upcoming Slapshot Ale. The hop is question, as should be obvious from the name, is Crystal. I enjoyed the nose quite a bit. It was brightly lemon and orange citrusy with an underlying tropical fruitiness that was wonderful. Dry-hopping should be required in all hoppy beer. Hell, let's make that all beer.

I don't mind sweetness, depending on the style, but it didn't seem to work in this case; at least not well enough for the flavor to keep pace with the nose. While it was far from cloying, the beer was sweeter, by far, than the average red ale. I'm guessing that the malt bill contains some amount of Crystal malt since I noted a caramel flavor underneath all the fruitiness.

As in the nose, tropical fruit assumed center stage. It was soft and mellow, as if sun-ripened, stickysweet papaya and passionfruit accompanied the sweetened lemon and orange zest. It actually sounds delicious when put into words, but it lacked an expected hoppy spark in the mouth. In addition, the sweetness negatively impacted drinkability just a tad.

The body/mouthfeel was impressively smooth and even a little slick on the back end. I guess that isn't surprising given the sugary fruit juiciness of the beer. As in most cases, the cask conditioning imparted a lovely softness to the mouthfeel.

Crystal Copper was very close to good beer and would easily have earned that designation if the sweetness had been throttled back a few clicks. If I was a server, I'd pass out samples liberally since I imagine that a wide swath of Rock Bottom's clientele would find this beer appealing.