Irish Goodbye
Right Brain Brewery

On tap at the brewery's taproom in Traverse City.

Appearance. Reddish-copper colored body with high clarity and a very good off-white head.

The malt forward flavor improved with some warming. This light bodied beer might benefit from more body or more carbonation

 

 

22 ounce bottle into pint glass, no bottle dating. Pours fairly crystal clear deep orange/copper/light reddish color wit ha 1-2 finger fairly dense cream colored head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, and nuttiness; with lighter notes of toffee, roast, plum, berry, pear, apple, herbal, floral, grass, wood, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/bready/light roasted malt and light earthy hop/fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, and nuttiness; with lighter notes of toffee, roast, plum, berry, pear, apple, herbal, floral, grass, wood, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light herbal/grassy/spicy hop and roast bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, nuttiness, light toffee/roast, herbal, floral, grass, wood, pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malt and light earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Light-moderate dryness from hop/roast bitterness, increasing through the glass. Medium carbonation and light-medium body; with a very smooth, moderately bready/grainy, and lightly sticky/chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 4.8%. Overall this is a great Irish red ale! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malt and light earthy hop/fruity yeast flavors; very smooth, clean, and pretty refreshing to drink with the mildly bitter/drying finish. A spot on style example, and very flavorful for the low ABV. Very clean malt flavors; with balancing earthy/noble hops and restrained yeast fruitiness. A very enjoyable offering.

Solid Irish Red Ale. Clear and near garnet, with a cap of white. Served on tap at the pub. Toasty Caramel malt takes center stage here, with some nuttiness and vanilla notes rounding out the finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This brew was served from the tap at Lockhart’s BBQ in Royal Oak, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass, showing a brassy ruby coloring. No real head was visualized, but light rings of lacing were left around the glass as the liquid disappeared nonetheless. A chill haze initially distorted clarity, but no sediment was noted. Carbonation appeared to be active. The aroma gave massive soured lactics off the bat, with grainy adjuncts, white flour, raw rye bread, lightly toasted sesame seeds, creamy vanilla icing, drying grassy hops, and cooled waxiness. Our first impression is that the flavoring shows nice malty spiciness, but finishes a bit cheap, with too much room left to adjuncts and soured, floury grain. The taste opened with creamy toasted malts, red and lightly caramel malts, huge metallic bite, and faintly fusel booziness. The middle came to a peak with corny and floury adjunct grain bitterness, lemon pulp, soured white vinegar acidity, buttered white toast, walnut oil, and bittered watercress. The finish wash shoed almost sweetness, maraschino cherry syrups, faint honey fruitiness, mineral, bittered pales, lightly toasted red malt muddiness, basil stem, and final sweet balance from syrupy dates, raisins, and melted brown sugars. The aftertaste breathes of grassy hops, toffee candy sweetness, lactics, red raisin, metallics, adjuncts, flour, and lime rind. The body is medium, and the carbonation is medium, but with big bubbles. Each sip gave nice slurp and sip, with little cream or froth to speak of. The mouth is a bit puckered, but left with final even dryness of chalk. The abv was light, and the beer drank well.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this brew was the flavoring. Comparatively, the aroma was rather lacking, giving overly adjuncty grain, lacking any real spice, red malt fullness, and tannic bite. The flavoring did, however, offer nice fruitiness through the flavoring with warmth, giving at least something to fend off the adjuncty onslaught. Slurp was nice on the initial drag, but the mouth was left wanting something again, more full, and more creamy. While this beer hit many stylistics points, it comes together only decently, leaving you wishing things had worked out differently between the two of you in the end.