Redbird Ale
Uncle Buck's Brewery & Steakhouse

Red Bird is the fourth beer from the lightest of Big Buck's standard offerings. After the Buck Naked, the Big Buck and the Antler, Red Bird is a malty, fruity beer with just enough oomph to make it a "real beer" in the Brewery's lineup.

The beer pours a deep, orangey-red color and has a beautiful, lasting beige head that's quick to lace. The aroma, which is noticeable when first poured, but coy afterward, is of slightly under-ripe strawberries, or maybe red cherries. The taste is pretty much the same--a fruity, berry flavor, similar to a berry that would exist somewhere on the sweet side of a raspberry, but not quite as sweet as a boysenberry. Again, I'd say cherries, but it's just a little too "berry-like", though the cherry element is definitely there.

The carbonation is extra smooth and quite complementary. I think Howard pretty much always does a good job carbonating the Grapevine Big Buck beers--there always soft and smooth, but never lifeless.

A little more hop flavor, aroma or bitterness would have helped this beer, but then it wouldn't appeal to the crowd Big Buck's after with this one. I like the fruity/berry flavor, though it does tend to lend a sense of "wortiness" (to borrow a word I saw Todd use) to the finished beer.