Red Rye
The Beer Company

8/17/2011

Blind Eye Red Rye on tap at The Beer Company.

A: Dark reddish brown with a small white cap. Lacing is scattered.

S: Aromatic orange and grapefruit blend with earth, bread, and caramel. Rye is evident but light.

T: Baked bread with a light spiciness. The beer has caramel notes with earth, grapefruit, and orange hop characteristics. There's an upper low level of bitterness with a lower moderate sweetness and a touch of alcohol.

M: Medium body with upper medium carbonation.

Overall: This is a pretty enjoyable hoppy American amber/red ale with rye. I like the blend of citrus and rye.

Served in a standard pint glass.

Appearance: Cloudy brown-red body with a half inch of dense, khaki foam on top. This beer displays excellent head retention and drags goopy, web-like lacing all the way down. Aside from body clarity, this looks superb.

Smell: Caramel, sharp citrus, and hearty bread come to mind first. A mild boozy note adds to the mix as it warms up, but certainly doesn't detract from the key components. Pretty standard; nothing exciting, but pleasant.

Taste: Taste follows the nose pretty closely, but comes with a lot more pop. Sharp and tangy citrus, pine resin, and booze all blend atop a huge, bready backbone. Aggressively sweet and bitter - like a west coast barleywine.

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied, sweet, and bitter with tons of mouth-coating. Prickly too, although the carbonation is actually pretty light. Bold.

Overall: This beer relies more on intensity than complexity, but I still enjoyed it. Worth a try, especially if you're having a rough day.