Deschutes Red Chair IPA

Brewed by Deschutes Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Bend, Oregon USA

Draft, light amber color with a nice white head. Aroma is a citrussy hops and taste is a nice IPA.

Bomber. Good citrus aroma along with some bread notes on the nose. Amber/copper body with off white head and good amount of lacing. Medium bodied brew with good citrus flavor, sweet malt and chewy texture. Sticky citrus on the palate. Good refreshing beer.

Pours clear amber, with a medium beige head, fine and lasting lacing. Complex floral bouquet with lots of pine, fresh-cut grass, with some subtle caramel, biscuit and apple notes. Medium body, velvety and mildly dry. Sweet malt flavor up front, primarily apple and caramel, with mild bitter pine and citrus finish. Well balanced and drinkable.

Bomber. Beautiful ruby red with a perfect foamy tan head, though it unfortunately fades somewhat fast.. Some leafy and piney hops in the aroma, accompanied by a hint of bready and syrupy malt. The flavor is, overall, guided by a malty sweetness that provides a backbone for a little interplay of the specialty grains and hops. Finish is fairly wet with a small bitterness. Deschutes claims it has "a deliciously intense hop presence without the bitterness." Intense? No. Tasty, but honestly I’m not sure why they wanted to remove the hop bitterness. It’s a very gentle and easy beer, lacking some in complexity and flavor depth. It does have that wonderfully smooth and creamy palate that all Deschutes beers seem to have, though. I really wanted to like this beer and was excited by how nice it looks, but something in the formula didn’t quite turn out.

Bottle. Poured clear red, off-white head, lots of lace. Aroma of citrus and piney hops, toasted malt, bread, and light spice. Taste is sweet and a little more malty than the aroma. A well balanced IPA, with a lot of sweet malt and resinous hops. Nice hop bite in the finish. Mouth is medium-bodied and a little sticky. Overall, a very solid, though not over-the-top IPA.

Toncatchers 2. Nose is sweet hoppy and sharp. Bright yellow/amber with off white head leaving a solid lace. Taste is sweet. Light hops and yeast. Clean finish in the front of the mouth, with a stickiness in the throat. Not bad...

Bottle. Copper red colored body, filtered. Nose:faint crystal malt, cherry and cedar scented hops, dried/stale bread crust and doughy yeast. Light grass hop note. Texture medium to full, chewy and resinous crystal malt. Oily cedar/bread/crust focused malt. Doughy, unkempt yeast, dirties the beer. Not a fan of crystal malt in IPA at all.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, caramel), lightly to moderately hoppy (apricot, resin), lightly to moderately yeasty (dough), with light notes of fusel alcohol, rust/metal/dirt. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter, slightly unclean. Medium body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic, slightly metallic. As with many of the more recent samples of various Deschutes products I’ve had, this one is rather rough...luckily no bile smell this time, but higher alcohols are evident, along with a metallic/sandy note, plus the somewhat strong raw yeast odor detracts from whatever brightness/freshness might have been the goal here. Ok flavor balance but marred by a slightly dirty aftertaste that the nose portended. Another miss from this once-decent brewery.