Hellbrook
The Alchemist

Sampling a cold 16 oz can poured into a shaker pint. Date stamp is 1/14/2026. My uncle picked this up at the brewery recently.
The beer pours a rich caramel brown color with some amber tint, but more brown ale color than reddish. A creamy fizzy beige head of .5 cm foams up and fades to a sturdy surface covering soon after the pour. There is some scattered lattice when I take a sip or swirl the beer.
The aroma on this beer is some toffee and caramel with hints of roast and a good balance of piney and grassy hops. Well balanced nose with no hint of booziness.
First sip reveals a medium to lighter body with smooth texture and fine , prickly carbonation. Pretty easy drinker here.
Flavor follows what the nose advertises on this beer. I get some toasted malt and caramel up front, only hints of sweetness and then the finish is pine and here, more citrus grapefruit note. The rindy grapefruit note lingers for a long time after the swallow. Never any hints of the booze on this beer.
This is an easy drinking well balanced beer. Id drink it again!

Pours a dark ruby color with a nice head and lacing
Aroma has fruity and citrus hints
Taste has a fruity and citrus flavor
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
A good Imperial Red Ale

 

A quality beer, just not what you would be looking for in a red. Darker, maltier, smokier.

 

 

Serving: Can
No date (Consumed Aug-30)


It pours looking fairly brown and clean with a very nice, billowing white head. I think this one's an oldie. cause it looks a little like a snow globe when I make the stupid decision to do a second pour from the can. Nice retention and lots of Belgian lace.
Big, earthy, leafy hop aromas with toasty malt sweetness, black tea and caramel closed out by a lingering resinous, sappy hop stickiness, there is a very light (meaning towards white on the choc- spectrum not faint) chocolate and a decent amount of ripe grapefruit in both the aroma and flavor. It is medium bodied with active carbonation and a dry, hop shellac finish. Very drinkable for as big and bold as it is in both the hop and malt departments. This is a very nice beer with a great balance of just about every flavor you would think could possibly be associated with the style. I love a good Amber whenever I get one, I miss when they were more available and even though this seems more like a red IPA, it still scratched that itch for me.

4.25*...4...4.5...4.25...4.25

*- Until I liked the taste enough to want to pour out that last 1/10 of the liquid and then it dropped it to a 3.25

Can from brewery in Stowe, VT. Pours a dark amber brown with lots of floating yeast particles, fluffy light tan head and good lacing, nose is fairly muted, hints of toasted malts, molasses, and bread/yeast, taste is nice light roasted malts up front followed by crisp bitter hops that lingers, this beer is medium bodied and creamy. A nice malt-hop balanced offering, this would be my jam during the winter holiday season.

 

 

 

 

This is a great example of a hoppy red ale, which are hard to fine and I absolutely love. Pours dark redish-brown with a tall, pinkish head that disipates slowly and leaves nice lace. Smell is a great combination of hops and roasted malt. I just love the taste of this one....and the body is perfect for the style. Overall, a typically well done Alchemist execution of a non-typical style. Wish I'd bought more.

 

The best example I’ve had of a style I’m not huge into. Something about the bitterness and the malt characteristics in a red just land wrong on my palate. Mild, hoppy aroma. Little to none of the off flavor that I associate with reds. Fun and juicy hops. Robust caramel malt. Quite bitter and slightly astringent finish.

 

 

poured from a 16oz can into a willi becher pint glass. pours a dark maroon with dirty, tan head. could pass for a brown ale. smell is straight up old school classic hops. piney, resiny, and very much in your face. a little bit of maltiness to the nose but this essentially smells like a red IPA. taste is piney hops with some bready malt backing it up. feel is full, creamy and lower carbonation. very nice on the mouthfeel. overall, it’s a lot hoppier than i expected (although i should’ve known better coming from the alchemist). it’s quite enjoyable though. not too hoppy. not too malty. good balance and quite easy drinking for 7%.