Bloody Crikey
Reuben's Brews

 

 

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium, hazy golden orange with a big three finger white head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and mildly tropical fruit hops, orange, lemon, light grapefruit and light mixed tropical fruit. Flavor is neutral malt, orange and lemon rind, grapefruit; mostly citrus. Finishes with citrus rind bitterness. Medium bodied with light creaminess. This Crikey is definitely orange forward, with other lighter citrus notes as well and lots of bitter rind. The malt is supportive, but nearly lost in the citrus juice. I recall that Crikey had a lighter malt body then the caramel often used in West Coast IPAs, but this version seems to leave the malt in the background. This seems more like a well bittered, citrus forward East Coast style IPA to me. I like a bit more malt flavor, so this wasn't quite my style. The orange forward citrus was quite nice, though.

 

About Bloody Crikey: This has been a name used by the brewery multiple times in the past. I've seen it used for both Crikey randalled through blood oranges and Crikey cask-conditioned with blood oranges. On Jan 2, 2020 they announced this beer was being released in bottles as part of their Unbounded Series.

Poured from a bottle dated 12/27/19.

Pours a hazy orange color. Small white head with decent retention and not much lacing. Smells a bit of pine and a lot of citrus.

The taste is all citrus. On the finish I get a light bready taste and a bit of bitter citrus fruit flavor. On the front it's mainly an unsweetened orange juice. Fruit is the only flavor I get but I wouldn't really call it overly fruity either.

I love IPAs with blood oranges. Crikey randalled through blood oranges is incredibly delicious. This bottled version is very good but the blood orange flavor is not nearly as powerful. It's strong enough to mask some of the other hop flavors you would get with the base Crikey but not strong enough to be obvious you are drinking blood oranges.