Conscription American Red
Vagabond

 

20oz pint at the pub, on a mid-week afternoon in the quiet area of downtown Calgary.

This beer appears a glassy red brick amber hue, with two skinny fingers of puffy, creamy ecru head, which leaves some random beehive lace around the glass as it display some rather good retention.

It smells of bready, pastry-like caramel malt, muted orange and grapefruit rinds, leafy, floral hops, and a nice hard water minerality. The taste falls well in-line, with more pastry-friendly toffee and caramel malt, tropical and orange juice fruitiness, earthy, leafy hops, and wet stone.

The carbonation is soft and pleasantly frothy, the body a sturdy medium weight, and agreeably smooth, with a tint of creaminess. It finishes off-dry, the sweet and complex malt holding court, as the heretofore capable bitter Yankee hops start trailing off into the distance.

An enjoyable enough hoppy red ale, one evoking the good sense of that first heady brew when drinking craft amber ales south of the border. I could surely pound a few rounds of this happily, all other things being equal.