The First Day of Spring
Forked River Brewing Company
- From:
- Forked River Brewing Company
- Ontario, Canada
- Style:
- Imperial Red Ale
- ABV:
- 6.2%
- Score:
- +8 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.63 | pDev: 3.31%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 2
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Feb 16, 2025
- Added:
- Mar 10, 2024
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
45 IBU
My friends. Don't just sit there and ruminate. It's a beautiful day outside, so come on out and welcome our bold Canadian red ale. Hopped exclusively with locally-grown varieties from Backroads Hops Farm, this amped up pale ale delivers their citrusy goodness alongside significant caramel flavours and a little residual malt sweetness. The First Day of Spring is a full-flavoured, 6.2% ABV, 45 IBU, dry-hopped red IPA.
My friends. Don't just sit there and ruminate. It's a beautiful day outside, so come on out and welcome our bold Canadian red ale. Hopped exclusively with locally-grown varieties from Backroads Hops Farm, this amped up pale ale delivers their citrusy goodness alongside significant caramel flavours and a little residual malt sweetness. The First Day of Spring is a full-flavoured, 6.2% ABV, 45 IBU, dry-hopped red IPA.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by talisen-crw from Canada (ON)
3.75/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.75/5 rDev +3.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, from the University Ave. West LCBO in nearby downtown Windsor. My second beer from the London, Ontario brewery.
Feb 16, 2025
Reviewed by thehyperduck from Canada (ON)
3.51/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25
3.51/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25
473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Jun 18 2024 and served barely chilled. Originally brewed in 2018 as a collaboration between Forked River and Great Lakes Brewery. There's currently no mention of GLB involvement on the label, and the abv/IBUs are different from the original release, so the recipe has presumably changed to some extent.
Pours a hazy, ruddy amber-brown, fitted with a two inch crown of thick, foamy, buff-coloured head that melts away within five minutes or so. It leaves behind a decent swath of sticky lace as it's reduced to a frothy collar and thin cap - looks good to me. The aroma includes earthy, leafy, herbal hops and toasted malts, with notes of grapefruit, caramel, berries and peas.
The flavour profile is fairly evenly split between malts and hops. Toasted bread, oats and caramel sweetness are paired alongside earthy, herbal hops, with hints of grapefruit, currants and orange peel also tossed into the mix. Finishes with moderate earthy, dirty bitterness, with fruity citrus dissipating into a bittersweet aftertaste. On the heftier side of medium-bodied, with assertive carbonation that contributes a lively prickliness to this red ale's smooth mouthfeel. Fair drinkability, but this one's not for me.
Final Grade: 3.51, squeaking out a B grade. I have been trying beers from this brewery for practically a decade, but for the life of me I cannot recall being wowed by any of their IPAs, ever. That's not to suggest that Forked River is forever hopeless in this field, e.g. their Knockout Punch NEIPA was above average, and their fruited milkshake IPAs (that I've tried) were fine for what they are. The First Day of Spring styles itself as a red IPA, but you could just as easily call this an amber ale - and frankly, I don't think it's an especially great example of either. The malt profile is nice, but I don't much care for the hops. Not a brew I'd care to drink again, but if you enjoy old school hop-forward ambers then this might be of interest.
Aug 19, 2024Pours a hazy, ruddy amber-brown, fitted with a two inch crown of thick, foamy, buff-coloured head that melts away within five minutes or so. It leaves behind a decent swath of sticky lace as it's reduced to a frothy collar and thin cap - looks good to me. The aroma includes earthy, leafy, herbal hops and toasted malts, with notes of grapefruit, caramel, berries and peas.
The flavour profile is fairly evenly split between malts and hops. Toasted bread, oats and caramel sweetness are paired alongside earthy, herbal hops, with hints of grapefruit, currants and orange peel also tossed into the mix. Finishes with moderate earthy, dirty bitterness, with fruity citrus dissipating into a bittersweet aftertaste. On the heftier side of medium-bodied, with assertive carbonation that contributes a lively prickliness to this red ale's smooth mouthfeel. Fair drinkability, but this one's not for me.
Final Grade: 3.51, squeaking out a B grade. I have been trying beers from this brewery for practically a decade, but for the life of me I cannot recall being wowed by any of their IPAs, ever. That's not to suggest that Forked River is forever hopeless in this field, e.g. their Knockout Punch NEIPA was above average, and their fruited milkshake IPAs (that I've tried) were fine for what they are. The First Day of Spring styles itself as a red IPA, but you could just as easily call this an amber ale - and frankly, I don't think it's an especially great example of either. The malt profile is nice, but I don't much care for the hops. Not a brew I'd care to drink again, but if you enjoy old school hop-forward ambers then this might be of interest.
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