這次矛盾的主角是『美式深紅色的印度淺色麥酒』/ “Red India Pale Ale”… 之前，那非常矛盾的風格 “Black India Pale Ale”，目前看許多酒廠與一個『十分民主』的評酒網站都從善如流，乾脆在達爾文式創新啤酒分類字典裡創了一個新的標的物 “American Black Ale”，讓大家去投籃… 我覺得還貼切，只是沒甚麼深意或新意。現在，看這不上不下的細胞變異 “RIPA” 以後要叫甚麼呀…？

今晚風格平行品飲的東西對抗，一是來自美國西岸 San Diego 的 Green Flash, Hop Head Red (叫 “Red India Pale Ale”) ，另一則是抱上美眉大腿的蘇格蘭釀酒狗狗 Brewdog, 10 Heads High (竟然叫 “Imperial Red Ale”)；光從酒名看來，嘿嘿，這『大英帝國』的遺毒，似乎不自覺地隨著狗騷味散出囉… 竟敢跟今日的美國紅髮美眉爭帝國的皇冠？

General Info.:

BD (Brewdog, 10 Heads High, 7.8%abv.): Coming in a slim 330ml brown bottle, not bottle-conditioned; BB 26/04/2014, served mildly chilled in a short-stemmed goblet. The front label crowns itself an “Imperial Red Ale”.

GF (Green Flash, Hop Head Red, 7.0%abv.): Coming in a short 355ml brown bottle, bottle-conditioned, no freshness info. is provided on the beer label; served mildly chilled in a short-stemmed goblet. The beer label states this is a “Red India Pale Ale” and “Amarillo Dry Hopped”.

Appearance:

4/5 BD: pours a clear, bright reddish copper colour, the carbonation comes rather quiet, while the beige beer head retreats to a very thin layer to last throughout the drink.

4/5 GF: lightly translucent, bright copper in colour, coming with a thick light-beige froth settling to a thin sheet to last, leaving tight layers of rim along the way; the carbonation comes rather light, ejecting large bubbles sporadically.

Smell:

4.25/5 BD: caramely, freshly lychee-ish, sour-sweet prune-ish, sweet citric, more fruity hoppy than GF on balance, while the maltiness remains the second fiddle to the main hoppy theme.

4.25/5 GF: barley-candy-ish malty and sour-sweet jammy fruity at the same time, suggesting prune jam, figs, caramel malts, smelling very much in my experience like a barleywine, due to the intensity and density of amber, caramel and/or crystal malts; a good swirl would bring up notes of lychees, perfumy esters, fresh oily resinous flowers, and aromatic pine. Rich, aromatic, resinous, interestingly structured, providing different enjoyment of malt complexity and resinous hops on two layers, “sniff by sniff”, “swirl by swirl”.

Taste:

4.25/5 BD: lightly effervescent, the foretaste is flower-estery, nutty, caramel malty, bitter-sweet tea-ish, with a lovely mildly spicy bite in the middle, then the undertones of pears, pine, sweetened citrus peels, bitter nuts, and earthy dark-tea tannins all converge to deliver a fruity, malty, tannic, bitter-sweet finish. Not extremely bitter to be exact, but sufficiently so to prolong the lengthy enjoyment of hops on top of a decent nutty & caramel malt body.

4/5 GF: semi-sweet foretaste, showing lots of sweetened black tea, lychee skins, grapefruit peels, fat prunes, etc., quite thin-structured sweet AND dry-ish as of caramel-glazed liquorice plus roast malts, leaving a nice herbal-sweet aftertaste with more liquorice, prunes, bitter grapefruit and lychee-shell like aroma to linger at the back of the palate. Overall, it is well-balanced, mildly sweeter at first, but the moderate level of tannic, yeasty bitterness outweighs the other elements to render a deliciously resinous, lingeringly bitter and satisfyingly chewy finish.

Mouthfeel & Overall:

4/5 BD: more like an IPA than GF, this is a balanced, hoppy, and deliciously resinous, highly hopped red-coloured ale coming with more of a body and depth than GF overall, maybe due to the freshness factor.

4.25/5 GF: medium-bodied, very attenuated on the carbonation yet not overly flat, this “Red India Pale Ale” tastes like a numbed-down version of a barleywine using predominant American piney hops and of course dry-hopped to add more depth of bitterness and resins to the overall flavour profile. Overall, it is far more estery than BD and the palate hints at a possible close-to-expiry-date freshness for this bottle, but still I find it an extremely enjoyable experience with this beer style with an ironic name, RIPA…

--Yau (tasting conducted 09/06/2013, notes transcribed 12/06/2013)