Rum Runner Red Ale
Persephone Brewing

 

 

 

 

 

A tasty brew that evokes images of Bruno Gerussi. Looks, smells, and tastes like an APA with a ginger bend. The caramel malt and citrus hop works for me. I would be very interested to try more offerings from Persephone!

 

 

 

 

L: Blood orange colour, clear, thin, white head
S: Bread crust, subtle molasses and caramel, slightly citrusy hop notes
T: Toasted bread, caramel, resiny and citrusy hop flavours (not too prominent), dry
F: Medium body, dry and pleasantly bitter finish, well carbonated
O: Excellent american-style red ale, nice malt flavours balanced by NW hops, worth a try!

650ml bottle - no indication of what exactly makes this red ale worthy of hanging with the rum runners of lore.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, rocky, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some decent spooky Swiss cheese lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of bready, doughy caramel malt, muddled black orchard fruit, a clammy yeastiness, further candied orange and lemon esters, hints of cold coffee, and leafy, weedy, and slightly floral hops. The taste is more semi-sweet, grainy caramel malt, biscuity toffee, ethereal coffee grounds, weird, but still pleasant blood orange bitters, weak pine resin, and more leafy, musty, and sort of perfumed floral hops.

The bubbles are fairly heady in their peppy and engaging frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight for the style, and mostly smooth, a small metallic edginess arising as things barely get out of the gate. It finishes on the sweet side, as the big-ass caramel malt maintains its gangsta pose, allowing the perky citrus and pine acerbity to run around like the non-threats that they eventually turn out to be.

An agreeable and worthy enough red ale, especially given the choice of name - no rum detected, sad to say - but they have at least amped up the ABV here, in an indiscriminate manner, so the moniker fits, as such. Not the best version of this generally underperforming style, but at least it's a sturdy step in the right direction, methinks.