Akilter
North Loop Brew Co

Review taken from tasting notes.
L: Pours brilliant chestnut under a 3” finely bubbled cream colored foam collar that grips the side of the glass.
S: Has a rich, fruity malt nose. Not much hop aroma.
T: Kettle sugars, faint coffee, hints of toffee and chocolate, a dash of cardamom to cola.
F: Creamy smooth with moderate carbonation and medium body.
O: Packs a lot of flavor into a moderate alcohol beer. Very drinkable.

 

I botched the pour on this - right now there's about an inch of beer at the bottom of the glass with a 5 or 6 inch collar of foam. This tells me right off the bat that much to my relief, this beer is not going to be too much like the Ora I just drank and reviewed, in spite of a previous reviewer giving this beer some notes that were frighteningly similar to what I got from Ora. Just poured more beer in, and this head is seriously like that of a root beer float. What to make of this…

The color is a hazy orange amber, and frankly, I'm not keen on the way we judge beers on their appearance. If Heady is as ugly as everyone says it is, and it still gets a solid 100, I motion for the abolition of the appearance category of judgement. But for the sake of playing along, this beer looks like it's going to be syrupy and think and rich. I've had good and bad beers that looked like this. The head though… the head is throwing me for a real loop.

The smell is coming off almost a little like a Pilsener to me, but not bad.

The taste is better than that of Ora, but in the same vein. Cherry notes, a little woodiness, too sweet. There's a big empty space besides - I'm still somewhat new to craft snobbery and have never homebrewed, but I'm thinking that additional hops of some west coast variety might be what's missing.

Feels like beer in my mouth, nothing out of the ordinary - better than Bud Light.

Overall, this strikes me as a craft drinkers affordable alternative to Killian's. It's also worth pointing out that when I poured my second glass, I tried to be very careful, but it exploded like a shook up bottle of pop - never experienced this before. It literally got all over the floor - is this the result of some brewer/user error? Message me if you think you have some clue because I didn't handle this bottle (bomber) any different than any other beer I've had in the past.

Appearance: Dirty hazy red-coppery brew, off-white tawny foam, good lace. It's not an attractive looking beer

It smells soapy.

Taste is lightly sweet, cordial cherries, caramels, cola, very light hop bitterness. Soda pop qualities. Quite interesting and tasty at first however becomes a little syrupy by the second glass.

Body is medium with good crisp carbonation, and holds together well.

Overall this looks and smells pretty unappealing yet it's got some interesting flavors working.

 

 

 

 

 

Appropriate red hue, tall dense cap of foam, fair lacing.

Malty, floral and herbal scents.

Nice malt presence, mild hop bite, caramel, some herbal notes. Lightly nutty at the end.

Body feels bigger than 5% and the carbonation is soft and smooth.

A very nice lower ABV beer. This wouldn't be bad at all in sixers year round. Solid brew.

 

 

Quite dark for an Irish Red Ale. Copper color with one finger of head that settles to a thin film in a few moments. Moderate amount of spotty lacing is left down the glass.

Sort of a medicinal aroma. My first whiff and I thought I would not enjoy this beer. But the aroma is starting to grow on me. A little herbal and spicy which compliments the caramel and bready malt.

This beer adds a little bit more character to the style without hampering drinkability. A tad sweeter, especially in the finish. Definitely can taste the effects of the crystal malt that the brewer added. So I taste caramel with a touch of toast. No hints of yeast esters. Does not finish as clean as I would of liked.

Feels bigger and richer than most in the style. Nicely carbonated as well. Overall a very good texture and the best feature of the beer.

Not sure what I was getting when I picked up this 750ml bottle. No description besides Red Ale. Not a favorite style of mine but a good beer nonetheless.