Full Moon Rye IPA
Real Ale Brewing Company

RB transfer

 

 

 

 

First time drinking a Rye IPA
Look: Poured from a bottle into a stein. Pours a dark gold color.
Smell: Oregano, rosemary, and lawn clippings. Very herbaceous.
Taste: Taste mostly follows the nose. I'm a bourbon enthusiast, so I know that rye adds spice to bourbon, but no spice in this brew. This beer is very herby and it is different, and I like it.
Feel: Mouthfeel is dry like a typical IPA
Overall: 90/100 A very good brew. Not really my personal taste, but I can definitely appreciate this beer. I would love to have a few of these every now and then.

 

12 oz. bottle poured into tulip
(best before May 18, 2017 printed on label)

L: almost copper, dark amber-gold, crystal clear and showing a lot of activity in the glass; pushes up about 4/5-inch of offwhite foam for the head and keeps a thick collar and most of a skin of offwhite/beige foam; not much sticking or lacing but still a beautiful brew

S: candied orange, sweet grapefruit, pineapple ... citrusy but quite sweet; malt has a donuty pop underneath, again quite sweet

T: much more bitter than the nose, pine and some orange peel and grapefruit peel mixing in with the same notes from the nose (sweeter citrus); aftertaste is bitter with the donuty malt again underneath; perhaps a pinch of rye flavor in the aftertaste, but if it's there, it's no more than a tiny pinch

F: light-to-midweight, well filled out by carbonation ... has some depth, even a pinch of ale slickness

O: while it's hard for me to pick up much rye, there's nothing wrong with this brew at all ... lots of hop and malt character with a good blend of notes; I could see it being a grapefruit bomb super fresh, but here as it nears its best-by date, the malt is adding a lot of sweetness without masking all of the hop flavor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a tulip glass. The bottle says best before 8/16/16 so it could have been a little more fresh. I would prefer to see bottled on dates instead of best before. Looks like the bottled on date is coded below the best before date.

L: pours a two finger head with medium lacing. A very dark amber
S: strong citrus heavily orange
T: very delicious citrus with a dominate orange flavor as hinted by the smell. The rye is hard to pick up for me as is seems to be well blended into a complex background of supporting flavors. I absolutely love this one and its my favorite of the rye IPA style that isn't a black IPA.
F: solid bubbly medium mouth feel.
O: This beer convinced me the RealAle brewery was worth trying their full line of beer after a heavy disappoint by Fireman's 4 which apparently makes up most of their sales. This is one of my favorite IPA's and I've become really impressed with the brewery. The distribution could be better as I would buy this on a weekly basis but I have to drive about 60% of the way to the brewery to get a store that carries it.