Ringed Tail Rye
Raccoon River Brewing Company

"I drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry,
Them good 'ol boys were drinking Ringed Tail Rye,
Singin' this'll be the day that I die...
This'll be the day that I die"

--from 'American Pie' by Don McLean


Tangerine-amber with bright gold edges. The compact head was dull pearl in color, persisted nicely and gave up much more lace than I'm used to from a brewpub pour. The first mouthful resulted in a thick, short collar that then became a riddled thick sheet as the beer continued to disappear. Points for clarity, hue and lace.

The nose was primarily pale malty, lightly toasted and even more lightly spicy. There was no rye that I could detect. It didn't make me excited to upend the glass, but I could tell from the aroma that the beer had more to offer than the standard amber ale that it appeared to be.

The first seconds of the first mouthful tasted like a standard, hop-deficient amber ale. As it turned out, the rye malt was merely lying in wait, ready to show its true colors on the finish. Ringed Tailed Rye isn't an overly rye-flavored beer, but it imparted just enough rye spiciness on the tail end to stand out from the crowd. It also helped that hops provided some amount of bitterness without intruding flavor-wise.

I think I've reached the point that I could identify beer from all the brewpubs in town based on their house yeast. Even if that isn't quite true, I'm confident that I could recognize Raccoon River's. It seems to give a sour apple flavor that could be good or not so good depending on the beer in question. Here, it happened to work out okay. As I reached the bottom of the pint, the finish picked up a pleasant grain flavor that was distinct from the rye.

My first impression wasn't related to flavor at all, but to mouthfeel. Body/mouthfeel is second only to taste for me and a good one is usually indicative of quality beer. This one was medium at best, but was ahead of the game relative to other local offerings. The soft, yet insistent, carbonation was also a treat, reminding me more of cask than tap.

Ringed Tail Rye is a pretty good effort. While an even bolder personality would have been preferable, this was a good 'light rye' that I'll order whenever it pops up on RR's rotation of seasonal offerings.