Alexander Keiths Red (Amber Ale)

Brewed by Oland Brewery (AB-InBev)
Style: Amber Ale
Halifax, Canada

Small offwhite head. Dark red body with carbonation. Dark fruity malty aroma with cinnamon and perfume notes. Sweet-and-dry perfumy malty taste with dry cardboard metal notes. Peppery mouthfeel, could be the carbonation. Dry cinnamon and paper aftertaste. Nice, but perhaps a bit sweet. (0.275l draft at McLean’s pub, Montreal.)

Light amber in colour with fairly strong carbonation. Muted aromas of caramel corn, light fruit, and metal. Quite bland in the mouth, with a hint of toasted malts, mild fruit, and adjunct grossness. Moderately dry for an "amber ale", but really this is just more macro crap with a hint of toast. Yawn. At least I didn’t have to pay for it.

Bottle.... Amber with off white lingering lace of a head. This looks better then if smells and tastes. Grainy, grass, aroma with some malt thrown in. Dry finish with light bitters on the back of my tounge. Watery palate not much meat to this one. The bit of malt that is there hides some kind of Soda Water like beer in the background.

I wonder if the people who drink this regularily actually like beer? My god, this was limp, and thin. Next to no aroma, and next to ZERO flavour a touch of caramel malt, and thats about.......club soda with red food coloring. brutal.

Tried this first on tap at the local Rack and Roll Club and I was fairly impressed, well as impressed as could be expected from macro brewed crap made for the masses. Didn’t have a rating book with me at the time, so this is based on the Canned version. First off cheese on them for putting it in a tallboy can, try to make it more exotic then it is. Why won’t they just throw a damn labbat logo on the crap so I can stop arguing with idots over domestic vs premium. Sorry lost myself for a bit there. The pour was, well as expected Red. Actually a rather nice dark red with a small but strong head. Looking rather nice I have to say. The scent was weak and watery, maybe a bit of grains, maybe the smell of my keyboard, it’s that weak. As to taste, a lot more here then the traditional Kieths (cough cough ipa cough). A little overly sweet, okay a lot overly sweet, but there’s some hops there, some definate caramel, even a bit of bite from some spice, maybe cinamon). Really for a genero beer, it’s rather tasty. Okay lets not heap on too much praise, still watery with not much depth but better then expected. Clean finish. A good session beer, and I’m sure I will be ordering pitchers of it next time I go back to the Rack and Roll, and I actually help it’s popularity spreads. I’d still rather drink this then most of the Bud, Blue, Coors they server most places in this acursed city.

After having this fresh on tap in Halifax I Finally got to review the canned version from the singles bin at the LCBO. Poured the same clear copper as the draft version...same flaccid head Aroma: Not very fresh..sweet caramel notes some graininess Flavor: Not much substance for a darker ale ,....no fruit notes no real malt notes but a pervasive caramel sweetness...quick clean finish, no off tastes just exceedlingly bland and nondescript. Again this is a unchallenging commercial ale...very approachable for a wide segment of the market...but not for me personally...I may have been harsh on it but I’m getting sick of this fear-to-challenge-blandness trend in new beers from corporate brewers...times have changed go bigger or go home.

This red ale did come with a big thick creamy head. With the dark red colour and not bad lacing I was quite suprized. To the nose was a slight metallic scent with a nice scent of malt and grass? First taste was a little thin. Seemed like the taste came and went right away. Leaving a mineral watery beer flavour. Not too bad but lifeless. Too bad it didn’t taste like it looked.

bottle. dark brown, red color and malty aroma. it has a healthy malt flavor with a light carmel element. you can flush out a hoppy element if you let it warm a bit. i was pleasantly surprised by this one considering their take on the IPA. (i can’t for the life of me figure out why that one has a higher rating...) the malts get a bit stale as you make you’re way through and the carbonation is pretty dominant but i have to give it some credit... its got character. that said it is a macro, so don’t expect too much.