Sacrifice Red Ale
Three Ranges Brewing Company

355ml can, with a different kind of ode than its siblings - this time, it's for the military service people in Canadian history.

This beer pours a clear, medium red-brick amber colour, with one skinny-ass finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some melting springtime ski slope lace around the glass as it quickly evaporates.

It smells of biscuity and grainy caramel malt, some indistinct orchard citrus fruitiness, a touch of phenolic yeast, and weak earthy, leafy, and dead floral hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a wispy sense of free-range ash, some muddled bruised stone fruit, a subtle earthy nuttiness, and more plain leafy, weedy, and weirdly acrid floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is again, quite low and hard to really measure with the trusty ol' froth-o-meter, the body an adequate middleweight, and mostly smooth, with just a minor contingent of unheralded hop bitterness traipsing through the virtual tulips here. It finishes sweet, sure, but with the malt laying off the gas just enough to allow for at least a suggestion of balance.

Overall, another so-so brew from Three Ranges - they've got the malt side of the equation figured out, now on to the hops! The bitterness isn't totally lacking here, but needs to be re-jiggered somehow, to make this a more palatable quaff, one that I'd want to raise another, and another, in the manner afforded us by the inherent theme of this offering.

A very nice red ale shared with me by a friend who travelled through Valemount this Christmas season. This beer is a very nice hoppy version of a red ale that finishes clean and crisp. A nice version of a style that is usually non-descript. This makes me want to make a personal visit to Valemount!