Red Whale
Barebottle Brewing Company

SF Beer Week tropical west coast red ipa collaboration with Local Brewing and Woods Beer. Unique deep amber color with fruit on the nose and palate, especially pineapple. Smooth and goes down too easily....

This was the last of the beers that I picked up at a Whole Foods in San Francisco, relatively recently. Love the beer week theme and this was a worthy brew for it as it was quite tasty and almost reminded me of an American Amber / Red Ale because of it's hue and body.

Of course, this poured red as it was mahogany, bordering on chestnut. A ton of tan, bubbly head topped this off as it was quite slow to settle down and offset the liquid nicely. Not much lacing was left behind as there scattered dots throughout my pint glass, without any discernible hints of rings. A good amount of pineapple, star fruit, and tangy hops were in the nose as some grapefruit and passion fruit emerged in the taste with hints of Caramel Malt giving this just enough bite t balance out the exotic feel.

The carbonation was fine and the alcohol was a bit strong, but also on point, as there wasn't any sediment to be seen at the bottom of my glass. Dated 1/31 with "HAVE A WHALE OF A TIME" written above it, I did while having this as I would have loved to have had some of the other offerings from this event. Subtle pine and dank forest stuck around in the aftertaste, as this was a true left coast beer with a different spin on the style. Glad I got a hold of this whale!

This is a really great beer. It’s not a harsh red, but it’s a distinct one. It deserves a try as it makes your taste buds fly. I can grow to love this!