Rye'd On
Block Three Brewing Co.

500 mL bottle picked up at the brewery about a month ago; no packaging date. Served well-chilled.

Pours a foggy orange-amber colour, producing about an inch of creamy off-white froth at the surface. Good head retention; it remains in place for more than five minutes, gradually wilting until it is ultimately replaced with a dense, smooth cap and wide, foamy collar. Pretty subtle on the nose; a touch of caramel, bready malts and sourdough, with grapefruit, lemon, passion fruit, and some mild floral qualities.

Now this, I like. The backbone is a beautiful blend of lightly toasted grains, bready rye malts and an understated caramelized sugar sweetness. Citrusy flavours of grapefruit and mandarin orange really make their presence known, with accompanying notes of juicy passion fruit, key lime and apricot. It finishes with a bit of pithy astringency, in addition to a subdued floral bitterness that does not cling to the palate. This pale ale's bitterness is surprisingly restrained, which really aids its drinkability. In fact, at 6.2%, I'd be inclined to call it dangerously so - there's no sign of the alcohol, while the light-medium body and smooth, satisfying mouthfeel (as well as the soft carbonation) provide me with no real excuses to take it slow. But the glass is getting a bit low, so I should quit pontificating and bring this review to a close already.

Final Grade: 4.0, an excellent A-. Rye'd On is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. The Citra and Amarillo hops provide a pleasant, juicy hop kick to rope people in, while the rye malts act as a more-than-adequate counterbalance - and meanwhile, the silky-smooth feel on the palate wraps the whole profile up perfectly. No aspect of this beer particularly overpowers any other facet - it's just a well-made, easy-to-like sort of brew that I find very easy to appreciate. I'd make this a year-round offering, but as an unabashed rye fan I'm not exactly impartial here.