yet another California selection has found it's way out of my fridge and into my belly. this time it's Red Rocket Ale from
Bear Republic Brewing located in Healdsburg, just north of San Francisco. I was expecting this to pour a similar colour as the previously reviewed Red Seal Ale, but it come out of the bottle a deep, dark brown. this was shocking to me as it looked more like a porter than a red ale. along with the deep hue was a huge thick head that remained for the duration of the tasting (... I wish I could say that about myself! [queue a rim-shot and a fat sidekick yelling, HEY OHHH!]) the taste shocked me as much as the colour did. there are very complex roasted malts here - I'm guessing that there's a few at play. I tasted coffee, some smoke, and maybe some bourbon. the over-the-top malts are counteracted with some over-the-top finishing hops. even with these big tastes, the balance of the two result in something very memorable. so much so, that I tried this beer a week ago and I'm still remembering all the taste details today. a brain numbing 6.8% ABV is attached to this ale, preventing it from being a real session beer (for me, at least), but it's definitely a good one to either start or finish the evening with.A-
(purchased at the ever-awesome Brewery Creek Liquor Store. I've seen it at a few stores around town including Viti and at Everything Wine. so far, it's not available the regular provincial BC liquor stores.)
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Had quite a few in Japan where it is believe it or not on tap. We also have Stone, Great divide, Southern tier, rogue, lots and lots on tap and in bottles (even Russian river, Firestone walker and The Belgian Westy family ((8,10 & 12))! - sadly not on tap).
ReplyDeleteYes, my first impression too was 'amber?'. Color is off but it is an interesting brew.
Nice pic. But why use a pilsner glass? With the head poured, it'd probably more or less fill a US pint glass. The head kinda doesnt do the eber jsutice. Excuse me, I'm not attacking you or complainig. i appreciate your review. Just hoping the head died down some so you could get at the eber underneath properly. You did ok!
Nice review.
Good to find your blog! Thanks for reviewing the beer and keep on doing it!
Excuse any typos (more than normal), getting a little tipsy on my homebrew at the moment.
Living in Japan. Loving and drinking and writing about craft beer here.
There's lots here.
Imported and home grown. Goooood stuff!
I'm not drinking my homebrewed amber ale, the amber floater (all my beers were fermented in my downstairs toilet - hence the toilet names) was modelled - color wise, on the red rocket. I think I nailed it! The crazy thing is tho, I don't care for ambers.
I wanted to make one to see if I could design one I'd like and to try to understand what goes into making one, so I could analyse others' ambers and figure out why I was so prejudiced against the style as a whole.
Sheesh1 Excuse my goings on1
A few too many brews! One good thing that has come out of me making space among my home brew bottles for tomorrow's bottling session is that I found your blog.
Thank you for blogging.
I do a few blogs myself and a lot of people don't bother to comment or to say 'thanks, I think you're doing a good job.'
Keep on trucking/blogging/boozing!!!!
Chuwy.
p.s. if you come to Japan, get in touch. ESPECIALLY Tokyo or Yokohama.
p.p.s. excuse the typos (its ususal with me) and the drunken yadder yadder.
I really like what you do here.
I'll bookmark this and check back and most probably link to it on some of my blogs.
Thank you, sir.