Lava
Saloon Door Brewing

L-Pours a deep amber/red color with some nice bubbles and a thin lacy head.

S-Sweet and sour apple, funky malt, peppery rye, maybe some barleywine and oaky notes. Nice and upfront aroma.

T-Follows the nose pretty well. Spicey and bready rye with some sour and sweet notes. A little bit of burnt oak and toasted malt in there as well. Cinnamon as well. A good bitter bite at the end. Sweet, but not overly sweet. Some fun earth characteristics as well. Everything is well made and put together on the flavor.

F-A bit dry on the finish. Works well with the light nature of the beers body.

O-Hides the alcohol well and is a perfectly fine Red Ale. I'm all for a gimmick beer, and that's partially what we have here... Not sure if the Lava heated aspect really effected the flavor or consistency of the beer at all, but I don't care. I enjoyed it and thought it was made really well. If you're interested it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

 

pours a mostly clear strawberry-tinged amber body with an excited fluffy cream colored foam head that has moderately high retention and leaves occasional lacing behind as it settles to a thin murky cap with defined halo

aroma is funky sweet malt - liken to rye but not quite. it's crisp and clean smelling with a hint of spice

taste is very rye adjacent, sweet but earthy and spicy; absolute malt bomb here. pretty sweet but ultimately pretty balanced. traditional toffee and dark fruit is quickly overwhelmed by a crisp funk. does NOT taste like an 11%'r at all. has a bubblegum effect towards the end. hops feel traditional and complimentary - nothing flashy there.

mouthfeel is higher carbonation and medium-light body that runs a little grainy but mostly smoothed by a soft, but active carbonation profile. it crisps up towards the end, finishing dry and leaving a malty, spicy rye-tinged bubblegum aftertaste. lacks the heat of most 11% brews, though there is a little bit present.

overall:
while I could easily label this as a gimmick, I can't find much literature on this brew to compare my experience to. the malt comes off very rye-like, and if there winds up being no rye accounted, I would assume the brewing process involving the onyx flash brew imparted some foreign funk to the profile of the beer. if that's the case, color me dumbfounded and impressed. if there is rye in the bill, then this honestly stacks mid-level in my experience with the grain in similar brewstyles. that being said, it's a fun brew, bringing plenty of complicated funk but maintaining a very easy feel to it that somehow still feels edgy/exciting. I would by no means drink more than one of these in a night, but would be an interesting addition to a flight showcasing different malt-forward brews.