'A' Mountain Red
Thunder Canyon Brewery

Reviewed from notes. From my AZ trip. The appearance was a somewhat hazy dark red color yet there’s still a nice transparency to the color to it. Light carbonation is seen rising but one really has to strain to see the carbonation rising. The smell had a really nice combination of bitter piney hops to caramel malts - well noticed throughout the entire drink. The taste was mainly sweet but does end up leading to a decent combined bittersweet flavoring, light caramel aftertaste, quick dry finish. On the palate, it sat at/about a light to medium on the body and sessionable. Carbonation is good for the style and for me, nothing obscure and nothing off, there is a slightly creaminess trying to coat the mouth and tongue but still maintains a somewhat sliding off the tongue sort of feel to it. Overall, I say this was the best one I had by Thunder Canyone as its a good sesssionable beer to have with food.

Arrives with a frothy, amber tinged, tan colored head that starts out about a finger thick. The beer is a slightly murky, concentrated amber color that shows a clear, red-amber hue when held up to the light. Malty smelling with a touch of herbal / spicy hops towards the finish. The malt character is caramelized without really being sweet, it has a brown grain and lightly toasty character to it and it helps to accentuate a light fruitiness that leans towards a non-descript berry character or perhaps even a touch of raisin. The hop character is quite faint, and only really plays a supporting role here.

The beer is quite carbonated, perhaps even a bit more than I would like. There is a herbal / hint-of-pine hop character that mixes with a lightly sweet, caramelized malt and English biscuit malt character and this is finished off by a bit from the carbonation as well as from some bitter hop character that lingers for just a bit in the finish. There is a sort of sweet tea like crystal malt flavor to this beer. The body of this beer has a definite chewiness and texture to it, it isn’t overly heavy though, but is not a beer to be pounded by any means. The malt character is actually the focus here with ample notes of biscuit, chewy brown bread sweetness, touches of toasty, whole grain crackers

This really isn’t my preferred type of beer, but having said that, it is quite nice for what it is; a caramelized malt, slightly toasty, kiss of hop character type beer that is nice and chewy, but still up for quaffing. The texture definitely seems to hit the right spot for the “cool” winters that Tucson experiences. I am actually enjoying this beer more than I would have expected otherwise.