Brewer's Cut Imperial Red Ale
Real Ale Brewing Company

 

 

Appearance: Slightly hazy medium amber-colored body, surmounted by a small, dense, and persistent off-white head. A modest amount of suspended particulate is present. Thin, fine-beaded lacing adorns the glass walls.

Aroma: Its all about the hops, the Three 'C's (Cascade, Centennial, Columbus) utterly dominate the aroma. The roasted malt aroma would normally be a substantial, even dominating characteristic, but it is but a mere bit player here.

Taste: Opens with a substantial wave of grapefruit find and pine tar flavored hops. These dominate the taste throughout. Also notable is a fairly strong toasted malt presence, which would, as with the aroma, be a dominating characteristic in a less hoppy beer. As the taste progresses, the hops ebb and flow, allowing hints of toasted bread, biscuit, and light fruit to manifest. Finishes with mildly sweet maltiness, and a long, lingering pine tar hop wave.

Mouth feel: Smooth and soft, quite elegant.

Drinkability/notes: A very well-crafted example, as typical from Real Ale. This would serve as a compliment to a cold, late autumn day.

Prsentation: Packaged in a standard twelve-ounce brown glass long neck bottle with a pry-off crown, served in a Samuel Adams Boston Lager sensory glass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brewer’s Cut 004 Imperial Red Ale
Real ale BC
20130630
12oz bottle to Modern pint glass
Imperial Red ale
Best by 12.11.13

A – Poured a little strongly, resulting in one-third finger of head that mostly dissipated in a minute, leaving behind a tan-ish off-white film. The beer is pretty much opaque but a little translucent. It’s cloudy and there’s unexpected sediment in it. It’s a brown color, with a red tinge.

S – Smells earthy and fruity, I like it so far. Brown sugar, dirt, vanilla, grass, and a chocolately, pineappley strawberry-banana like smell. Like some strange smoothie. I can also pick up some alcohol.

T – I get the some dirt, cocoa, and fruit taste, followed by grass and some pine. Quite a strange progression. The cocoa lingers the whole time, staying through the aftertaste with the pine and re-occurrence of the strange fruit flavor. The flavors are borderline muddled, and mud seems to be one of the tastes. As it warms a little, some orange comes out, as does some spiciness from the hops.

M – Medium bodied, pretty well carbonated, but becomes slick in the swallow. Keeps its distance from the tongue.

D – Not a very good red ale, and putting style on the backburner, a pretty average beer overall, but kind of murky. There is some balance between hops and malt though, though it is malt forward but not very ‘red ale’.
All 3’s.
P.S. After reviewing this beer, I see BA has it listed as a DIPA. Well, that might have changed some of my thoughts, but what am I going to do now.