What beer are you drinking now? #4549

Nice glass !
Cheers

 

Mill77 Brewing Island Time IPA 6.5%. 16 years ago today we had the greatest day of our lives as we met out first child. Congrats Jasper. Cheers all.

 

Good to hear. With some luck it will show up here too, sooner or later.
Cutting back a bit recently because of some stomach issues (nothing serious and not alcohol related), so I have good excuse spend some extra
Cheers!

 

The wife took a half day off from work and is off until Monday so we're splitting a big ole Stella with lunch prep.

 

Cheers to your family and son Tim!!

 

Cheers to Jasper!!

 

At Two Goats with the wife
Goat meal Stout for me & a Quiet Rye-it for the wife. I shared a pint with Bill Murray

 

Spring cleaning continues today at the condo, and that includes the beer chillers - KBS:



Bottled 9/10/24. Poured at 58.4°. This beer should get me through the next round of cleaning/packing. Cheers y’all!

 

Thanks! Every time I use it, I just want Grolsch

 

Golden Crush Hazy IPA

 

Anvil ESB from AleSmith. A well-made classic style.

 

Easy lunch of a couple dogs, Fritos and an Angry Chair The Rake DDH DIPA.

 

Summit Horizon Red IPA is #2 in my Classic Craft Beer Re-review Series. American Amber/Red Ale was a must brew style for pioneering craft breweries. Summit's version shows the evolution of the quarter century of craft beer.

Re-review 4/3/2025
Score 3.98
Look 3.75, Smell 3.75, Taste 4.0 Feel 4.0, Overall 4.25

This is a classic Summit Brewing beer with a back story fit for making it #2 in my Classic Craft Beer Re-review Series.

Summit originally bottled/canned Summit Horizon Red in 2009. It was a rebranding, and modified recipe, of its tap-only Summit Amber which was a moderately obscure offering made available in the mid to late 2000's to Minnesota bars that had good Summit sales. I remember drinking Summit Amber on a number of occasions at Wistle Binkines Pub in Rochester, Minnesota. It was of the light, malt forward amber ale style which was in vogue in the craft beer scene at that point in time. Every craft brewery in the country had one (or two).

The 2009 bottling/canning came with a recipe tweak, and a rebranding to Summit Horizon Red Ale. It was hoppier, and fuller bodied, yet remained on the malty side of things. It was a much better beer than Summit Amber, in my opinion, and again exemplifies where the state of American craft beer was at the time. Beer drinker's pallets wanted an overall fuller beer in all aspects, and Summit adapted to that desire. It's this version of this beer that I originally reviewed in 2009.

Sometime around 2013-15 Summit rebranded Summit Horizon Red to Summit Horizon Red IPA. I don't believe a recipe tweak was involved this time. It's still an amber/red ale; not an amber/red IPA. Summit simply applied the last true innovation in craft beer; it called something, anything an IPA so that its sales would increase. It's this version I'm re-reviewing.

Look 3.75, Smell 3.75, Taste 4.0, Feel 4.0, Overall 4.25

Summit Horizon Red IPA has a clear red color with a nice initial head that receded slowly, but leaves no lacing. The aroma is completely balanced. There's a lot of toasty, caramely malt. The hops are muted, and don't really add to the dimension of the aroma other than to keep the malt from running wild. The taste has a bit more malt in a nice way. Again, not much hop flavor, but it would be noticeable without them. The mouthfeel is velvety with style appropriate moderate carbonation.

Overall, this beer is greater than the sum of its parts. It's got history. It's a story of how a successful pioneering craft brewery continually adapts to modern tastes. It might be the best example of this I know of in a single beer.


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Original Review 5/19/2009
Score 3.5
Look 3.5, Smell 3.5, Taste 3.5, Feel 3.5, Overall 3.5

This beer pours a clear ruby red color. The head is half an inch in height, and recedes slowly into nice lacing. The aroma is remarkably malty. I detect some grapefruit and pine, but for the most part caramel and toffee dominate the nose. The taste is more balanced than the aroma. The malt and hops are very well interlaces with a lot of pine and grapefruit mingling with a more than solid malt bill. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with lively carbonation, and a velvety texture. Overall, this is a good beer from Summit. I would like to see a little more hop presence in the aroma, but it is still a good beer nonetheless. I will certainly drink this again.

 

Congrats, Jasper! I remember he was a little guy when we met up in Hershey years ago. Holy crap, they grow up fast!

 

The Hopleaf! Been to that place, it's epic!

 

Thanks. I'll use postimage going forward.