December 24 - Rivertowne Rudolph's Red

Tonight, I planned on doing a dual review of Naughty and Nice from Flying Dog Brewery, however, I ended up having these at my bottle share last night.  I usually enjoy beers made by these guys, but last night's bottom line...

Neither beer was very good, with Naughty bringing up the rear (1.5 out of 5, which I dumped).  The fact that they had to add a strip to the label about the fact it had habenero pepper in it should have been enough of a disclaimer.  It burned just too much.  I've had pepper infused beer before and am definitely a fan, but when it's not balanced with the rest of the ingredients, it just doesn't work well at all.  Nice was an 8.3% Belgian Style Golden Ale and Naughty was a 9.0% Belgian Style Dark Ale.  It was worth the try, but neither was anything to write home about.  Maybe I'll try a mixture of the two another day. Not today.

Time to call another audible.  

Actually, I guess it's plan C...

Appropriate for the day, for sure, is Rivertowne Brewing Company's Rudolph's Red, an 8.1% Imperial Red Ale that really should be dubbed a double winter warmer.  Make a new category folks!  Rivertowne makes my all-time favorite (and only one I know of) pineapple beer, Hala Kahiki.  

Sounds the same as the beer pronunciation, right?

OK...sorry, I got sidetracked a bit here...back to the beer...

The beer poured an amber color with a thin, soapy white head.  The aroma of sweet, candied ginger and spices, with a stronger hint of cinnamon.   

The first few sips were that of sweet spicy ginger and sweet malts.  However, after playing Santa tonight and taking some bites from the gingerbread men, that cookie screwed up my palate for a few minutes and really meshed well with the beer, strangely enough.  After the cookie taste wore off, the flavors were still pleasant and something that may run towards the top of my winter must have list.  It won't replace Merry Maker from Sam Adams, but it's definitely in the top 5 now.

4 out of 5 Rudolph's for this beer!  Cheers!

Merry Christmas Eve to all of you!  

I got the fat man's cookies in the background and my wife gave him MY Santa pilsner glass...plus it's only full of milk.  Sorry Santa!