8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

16 ounce can into lager glass, canned on 2/1/2019. Pours crystal clear deep ruby red/copper color with a 1 finger dense and creamy cream colored head with awesome retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread dough/crust, toasted biscuit, and nuts; with lighter notes of roast, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/bready/light roasted malts, and light-moderate earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread dough/crust, toasted biscuit, and nuts; with lighter notes of roast, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery hop; and slight roasted bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of caramel, brown sugar, brown bread dough/crust, toasted biscuit, nuts, roast, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malts, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance, and no cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Perfectly clean on lager flavors, with zero fruity/yeasty notes. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, fairly crisp/sticky, and slightly chalky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 4.6%. Overall this is an excellent Amber/Red lager! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malts, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; very smooth and fairly crisp/refreshing to drink with the mellowly bitter/drying finish. Extremely flavorful and not watery for the ABV. Very clean and rich English malt complexity, with balancing earthy hops. Mild residual sweetness with lingering dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and impressive style example. This nails an Irish Red as a lager; aside from the missing Irish yeast fruitiness because of the lager yeast.