Stoked Ember Ale
Firehall Brewery

 

Appearance: Fairly clear dark red, bit of brown copper hues in the light. Wonderful light beige seafoam head topper standing two fingers tall and leaves a gentle curtain of lace as it recedes at a leisurely pace.

Aromatics: Smells like sweet red candy almost as a base, hints of sweet citrus fruit offerings above some light floral and green grass accents.

Taste: Mild citrus rind bitters support a light pine earth of the hops with resinous tack; and dried green straw qualities with the malted barley.

Feel: Gentle carbonation lends itself to a fairly juicy, smooth, and creamy middleweight. The finish is pretty clean with a light bitter hanging on the middle of the palate for all its worth at then end but is relatively short-lived .

Overall: A decent red ale all around. Has a great colour profile, and is on the light end (4.8%) which makes it a potential sessionable beer. The bitter is a little drier for me in that regard, but I could easily see myself enjoying a couple of these while playing a few rounds of darts or just chatting with friends about the latest nerd news.

Pairing : I want to mention something about sessionable ales, I think for many any beer you can enjoy more than a few of in a row is a sessionable beer. And more often than not, the best occasions to “session” are things like “game day” (whether is sports or poker) and holidays where there is plenty of conversation. For me a sessionable brew is one I can have while playing D&D with my friends - after all you gotta sit and play for hours while snacking on miscellaneous munchies and what-not so being able to enjoy a few brews AND still keep the game from going off track or dissolving into meaningless jabber is what I think a sessionable brew should be able to do. And this one comes close. Keeping that in mind, generally sessionable beers inevitably come with food at some point, and usually easy to make, simple, pub fare, are the best bets… so for food - I can say this beer does pair extremely well with chicken wings - in all flavours, but I wasn’t a fan of teriyaki and this brew - a little too sweet and didn’t balance properly. BUT, traditional buffalo hot, honey-dijon mustard, honey garlic with sesame seeds, jerk spice, and straight up plain all were great.