Big Red Vibe
Thunder Canyon Brewery

 

 

Thunder Canyon Big Red Vibe on Cask, Cask hopped with Cascade / Millenium; Sampled August 2011

Arrives from the cask with a half-finger thick, nicely amber tinged, dark tan colored head; the head is quite dense and creamy and leaves a thick layer of lacing as I work my way through this beer. The beer starts out pretty hazy and a paler amber color. The aroma is vibrantly hoppy with lots of juicy ruby-red grapefruit, lychee and ebullient tangelo zest aromatics. As my nose adjusts to the aroma, more of a pine character starts to come out from the hops and the malt starts to add touches of toasted, spicy whole grain character as well as some fruit accentuating (berry even) crystal malt sweetness (that reminds me just a bit of sweet tea) in the nose.

Slightly sweet, just enough to boost the ample hoppiness, and there is lots of flavors of tangerine, kumquat zest, lychee and lots of sweet citrus zest character. This is backed by a somewhat more subdued, but still contributing pine and herbal hop flavor as well as a solid bitterness that is noticeable throughout, but really bites down in the finish. There is even some fresh, green hop astringency to this beer, as well as a touch of dank “hop” character that is found in the middle and finish; this gets sort of peppery and definitely herbaceous in a “hemp” oil kind of way. Being on cask, this beer has a creaminess to it, though it is somewhat viscous and chewy, though it isn’t cloying, but with the big, sometimes aggressive hop character this is not a beer I would drink quickly.
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My biggest complaint with the base beer was that it could have used a whole lot more hop character, this is the answer to that; I am really enjoying the extra hop character that the dry hopping has added to this beer. This beer, along with Cian’s Porter are probably the best two beers I have ever had in one sitting at Thunder Canyon; I am tempted to try and get a growler of both of these for later enjoyment.