Razzykat
Alley Kat Brewing Company

 

355ml can poured into tulip. Can't believe I haven't reviewed this one.

Pours a clear rosy amber with two fingers of blushing off-white head that leaves a decent sheet of lace as it recedes.

Smells of raspberry pie, sliced lemons, some bready caramel malt and faint weedy hops.

Tastes of tart raspberries and sour lemons, white bread and more ghostly green hops.

Feels light and fizzy. Light bodied with prickly carbonation. Finishes sour.

Verdict: Recommended. A nice light tasty fruit beer.

Pours a clear amber with almost zero head.

Smell is tart with notes of raspberries, lime and a hint of lemon candy sweetness.

Taste is tart with a smidge of sweetness. Notes of raspberries, lemon and cherries. Very balanced and refreshing.

Mouthfeel is medium, well carbonated.

Overall, a nice, refreshing sour.

 

Bottle: Poured a light pink/red color ale with good size foamy head with good retention and no lacing. Loads of protein flake are also discernable,which makes this somewhat gross to drink. Aroma of lightly sour raspberries with no fake syrup is quite enjoyable. Taste is also sominated by some lightly sweet and sour raspberry with some malt also noticeable. A bit gross to look at but more enjoyable then I had anticipated.

'Fruit-infused', or 'extract-enhanced', or 'summer seasonal fruit in my bloody glass' beers - however they go about it, my take on most brewers' attempts at this 'style' is highly biased. I take the con side, in case there's any lingering ambiguity. I actually do highly approve of them for a different reason: I've seen a number of otherwise anti-beer women change their tune when presented with a well-made fruit ale. Gateway beer indeed...

So, Alley Kat has brought back one of their classics from their start back in the '90s. They even kept the retro labels, with the two white felines awkwardly toasting the namesake libation, while the 'Raspberry Balloon' floats in the background. Sufficiently offbeat and off kilter for this sports fan...

Into my Alley Kat pint glass this goes, with a large amount of frothy off-white head, that sinks away quite quickly. The beer in the glass settles into a hazy, light copper colour. The aroma - um, raspberries, anyone? The nose is all raspberry, sweet and tart and reminding me of the aroma of my mom's raspberry cream pies in the summer when I was a kid. The taste is more tart, creamy raspberry. There is actually a beer to taste underneath, with the medium malt body and sweetness asserting itself amongst the fruit. The hops are there too, in the middle of the palate, but disappear entirely at the finish, leaving the raspberries to remain the star of the show. Hey, it's called Razzykat, not Hoppykat, and I am quite ok with that! There is a mild and pleasant carbonation that makes this quite drinkable, for the style. I can see having a few of these in a summer session, at least until the raspberry love-in diminishes.

A pinkish touch colours the otherwise amber-gold beer that pours. A thin white fizzy head forms and disappears fairly quickly. With this beer, I noticed the most amazing effect.... As the last drops poured out of the bottle onto the top of the beer already in my glass, several tiny "marbles" (~1mm diameter) of beer formed and shot across the surface. Several were stable for 10 seconds before they immediatley disappeared into the beer. Freaky.

On the nose, malty grains with a hint of sweet raspberries.

The flavour is refreshingly toasty/bready, with a tart raspberry edge to it. There is no cloying sweetness, no fake berry syrup flavour, nothing to get in the way. The body is light but satisfying, crisp clean, refreshing.

I could drink this -all- night long, no question.

Alley Kat's summer seasonal, a raspberry ale that comes in a brown 500 ml swing-top bottle. One of the cats on the label has a copy of The Thorn Birds in front of it, how utterly cryptic. Nice bubbley off-white head on the pour. The appearance is sort of an apricot/marmalade hue, but one must remember that yellow malt and red raspberries will equal some sort of orange offspring every time (hey, I've had the colour wheel beaten into me since grade 8 art class, let alone from the 4 years of art college). Seems like a bit of a chill haze to it as well.

Very pleasant aroma, raspberries accompanied by a malty entourage, I can tell already that this stuff is going to have some body to it flavour-wise, not like the thin raspberry water that other breweries try to pass off as a raspberry beer. The flavour is raspberry up front, but it is not a predominant motif, the malt is quick to make an appearance and carry the flavour as well, yet the raspberries take the forefront again for a tart finish in place of hops. A nice balancing act on their part. Mouthfeel is light, but not watery, this is pretty refreshing stuff. Perfect dock/beachside refreshment for hot summer days, a fine outdoors session beer. Hands down the best raspberry ale I've sampled so far.