Red Menace Big Amber
Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub

Pours a rather dark and hazy amber color, almost brown, with a one inch slightly yellowed head sitting on top. Decent retention and some traces of lacing.

The aroma is a bit of a disappointment. Certainly a bit of hops, spicey and earthy, with a bit of grainy malt and caramel. For some reason this one is reminding me of tomato soup.

The taste is terrible. A washed out musty malt with basically no hops. A little bitterness with metallic notes on the finish. Muddy flavors, and poorly constructed.

Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with very low carbonation.

Drinkability is low. Flavors are just wrong. The alcohol is low making for a sessionable beer, but the flavors are horrible making for a poor drinking experience.

fresh taste, not much carbonation - enjoyed and will buy again.

2020-11-22
12oz can served in a tulip. No date on the can. Gift from a friend, received last night, but I think he'd had it for a while.

Pours a dark amber with a smallish head and not much carbonation. Smell is light toffee, toasted bread, tea and grain.

Taste is a little toffee and toasted bread, a lot of tea and grain, and metal. This metal flavor, hopefully not in my imagination, is why I stopped paying any attention to Hale's like ten years ago. I'm sad it's still there, but it makes the beer unpleasant to me.

Mouthfeel is medium, more carbonation than it looks. Overall, I don't want to drink it. It's not terrible, but it's not good.

 

Oh Seattle, you funny, always trying to follow in San Francisco's footsteps and calling it originality or individuality, just like Portland tries.

Pours something that looks like it could be brown as much as it is amber/red. 2/5" off white head. Average retention. An aroma of red ale like malt, wood, pine, smells like the dirt around a camping spot. Bring the cooked malt.

Taste is a metallic bitterness accompanied with a dark roasted malt industrial complex. Honestly tastes like it is 7% abv, not less than 5. Caramel/toffee/dirt notes. Carbonation is where it should be. The maltiness doesn't provide the heft or viscosity I was thinking it would. Almost more for the coloring aspect than the mouth feel.

At the end of the day, this stacks up to similar step dad tier red ales with a dose of bitter C hop. Kind of crazy how similar it is to great beers like SNPA, but in reality, this is the barely serviceable generic bagged cereal version of what you really wanted to get at the store.

 

 

 

12 ounce bottle poured to tulip glass
Sight: dark amber color minimal head, some lacing
Smell: malty aroma
Taste: very Good, but not a lot of character
Mouth feel: low carbonation
Overall: very good beer, but not something to look forward for the price

 

Minimal head that disappears quickly, nice colour though. Smells tinny and as expected, has a hoppy bitterness.
Mouth feel is watery and dry aftertaste. Didn't really get me excited. The remaining 5 will outlive other beers in my fridge.

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium coppery amber with light red notes and a half finger off-white head with good retention and lacing. Aroma of biscuit and light caramel malt, light citrus and grassy hops with a hint of fruit. Flavor follows with biscuit and mildly caramel malt, citrus and grassy hops with a light note of sweet citrus fruit that comes forward in the later part of the taste to provide a pleasant introduction to the light citrus hop finish. Medium bodied with good carbonation. A nice amber ale that has enough fruit in the flavor to be in red ale territory, although it is not a distinctive red. I'm a big red ale fan and am ambivalent about ambers, so this one tasted fine to me as a more full flavored amber if a mild red ale. Plenty going on here for an under 5% ale, I'm pleased. I've found Hale's to be a solid brewery and this is in that category. I'm surprised by the relatively low rating for this one.