Thursday, October 28, 2010

Danny's Irish Style Red Ale - Moylan's Brewing Company

Whenever I think of red ales, I think of the time we went to Tom's house and brewed.   I was a brew-virgin and brewing a spiced stout (which turned out pretty doggone good) and my buddy Cody was trying his hand at a very hopped Red ale.  So Cody, this one's for you!

Poured into a Sam Adams glass.  Okay, maybe it's just this glass or something, because there was NO froth on the pour of this thing - barely a quarter of an inch of head which rapidly deflated to the lacy top I'm looking at right now.  Half of me blames the glass but the other half blames Beverage Warehouse for LEAVING LIVE ALES OUT ON THE FLOOR.  But I digress.  Beautiful red brown gold reminding me of Maine in october, sugar maples and oaks at the peak of color.   The opacity is really balanced, letting just enough light through to create a glow to it rather than being transparent.

Nose in and...Oh my.  The malt on this seeps into your every pore.  It smells like the homebrew shop for all the barley in this.  The glass warned of heavy barley, but I still wasn't prepared for the glorious scent of whole grains that this brew bestows.  I feel like I'm a horse with a feedbag on every time i put my nose into it.  This might be the best smelling malt beer I have ever smelled.

Time to see if the flavor matches - and does it ever!  Smooth yet not too syrupy mouthfeel as the barley essence coats my tongue.  What's amazing about this beer is how despite being all malt on the flavor, it is not overpowering.  The drinkability is interesting too - you never want to stop drinking more but you want to savor every drop and never see the bottom of your glass.  Everything about this beer (minus there being almost zero hop taste) is balanced like a high-performance vehicle.

The more I drink this the more i see this as a "thinking man's beer" - the kind of beer where you go out to the pub, grab a Danny's and ponder the life, universe and everything with a few of your mates.  (I wouldn't normally use non-local slang like "mates" and "blokes" because I find it douchey and reprehensible if you don't hail from said area(in which case it's acceptable), but the word-picture wasn't complete without it, and I'm not so selfish as to hold back from you when i have a mind-blowing word-picture, gosh darn it!)

I have tried to think back to all the Moylan's beers I've had and I can't say that I've ever been disappointed - which even the great Russian River Brewing Company, maker of my beloved Pliny, has failed to do for me.  Every beer has the highest of quality and it's clear that the head brewer is not afraid to take risks.  They hit the nail on the head again with this well crafted ale, and I am definitely making this my top beer when I want to go malt-crazy.

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