Thick Brick Red Ale
Big River Grille & Brewing Works

Appearance: clear amber in color with a paper thin head that breaks into surface spots immediately. No lacing develops.

Smell: no aroma at all with this beer.

Taste: the overall flavors are all mild and soft on the tastebuds. Malt sweetness, ripe red fruits, and little to no bitterness makes up a one dimensional beer.

Mouthfeel: slippery smooth at the start through the finish. Medium bodied beer. This beer has a very brief sweet aftertaste.

Drinkability: this was hard to drink because of the lack of flavors and mouthfeel was a bit to slick for me. I sampled this a second time on a follow up visit the same weekend and it tasted the same.

Maybe a bit out of style, but maybe the better of Big River's standard brews. Nicely malty without being too caramelly or toffee like. Bright maroon colors with fair retention and lacing. A mild bread character follows up in the aroma and flavor. Hops come in late and flavor the beer with a medium spicy / citrusy character. Bitter intensity late. The beer feels a prefered medium with a bit of sticky sweetness, but hop dryness. I liked this beer, and I ususally don't like Red Beers.

Big bubbly head, hazy brown color with a red tinge to it. Light, fresh, red malt scent, with noticeable citrus hops (it says right on the menu they use Cascade hops in this beer). This beer would not be a hop bomb in my book, but I did note, "Hoppiest red ale I have had." in my notebook. Right when you take a sip, there it is just like in an IPA, the bitter resinous bite of hops first and foremost before you notice anything else, though not uncomfortably sharp. A good mix of floral, and some citrus flavor. Then the bitter-sweet red malt comes through quite well after a bit. I felt like the hops actually helped unlock some of the malts flavor pretty well. As in Big River's stout as well, I did notice some watery fruits, like currant and gooseberry, in the finish that really added a lot to the flavor. I could easily drink this stuff all night. Red beer for hop-heads.

Had this on tap last night at the brewpub. Pours a standard amber color with no head and no lacing. The aroma had a citrus character. Cascades is what they said they used. The flavor has a bite from the hops. Has more of an APA feel than a Red Ale. Slightly over hopped. Finish is bitter with a citrus feel. Didn't care for it very much.

Part of a sampler: Pours a dark amber color with a medium off-white head. Thin lacing. This brew has a heady hops aroma which surprised me a little. There was also some malt which was not so much of a surprise. Medium bodied, and very hoppy for an amber which was a nice change of pace from what most Ambers seem to offer. There is also a nice finish that produces some hops and citrus on the tongue where previously there was none.