Grays Irish Ale

Brewed by Grays Brewing Company
Style: Irish Ale
Janesville, Wisconsin USA

Serve in English pint

Gray’s Irish Style Ale pours a red/mahogany hue with a half-finger of creamy offwhite head. Aroma is quite malty (misleading sweet scent). My first thought is amber or red ale. More bitterness than I expected upon first taste. Definitely due to some of the more common American hop varieties. Hard to describe, but this is pretty much a standard ale flavor...if someone wanted to know what an ale might taste like, I’d use something like this to differentiate between the crispness that I associate with many traditional lagers. Gray’s Irish Ale isn’t sweet, but it has a pretty wide open scale that lends a sort of sweetness. Very much a session ale on the drinkability scale.

Date: 08/07/2008
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub

Appearance: hazy amber, wispy off white head, bits of lace,
Aroma: sweet caramel malt aroma with light earthy hops,
Flavor: sweet caramel malt flavor, lots of butterscotch adds to the sweetness,

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 9/20
Rating: 2.5/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Smells of rising barley and malts, carries a light tan head with a scotch red body. Taste mutch like a scotch ale from yhe other island. Palate weakens to a watery finish. I will be recycling empty bottles of these come March 18th.

Hazy amber with a n off-white slowly diminishing head that leaves streaks of laces as it turns back into beer. Aroma of nuts, caramel, toffee and toasted malts. Taste of sweet malts, toasted malts, caramel, nuts, though not very strong on most accounts. Heavily malted with a mild hop finish that is somewhat dry.

Picked up a single 12-oz bottle from Flanagan’s Liquors in Appleton, Wisconsin as "Gray’s Irish Style Ale." Pours a clear reddish amber brew with a thick and creamy off-white head. Nice lacing! Aroma of multi-grain malt with even a touch of dry rye, some grassy hops and some toffee. Taste is medium bodied, some little carbonation with flavors of caramel malt, some fruity character and mild spice hops. Finish has a good balance of malt and mild bitterness. Actually, this is a pretty decent Irish Ale.

12 oz bottle. Poured a clear reddish orange color. Head was one finger high and dissipated over a few minutes. Aroma was of husky grain with a touch of caramel. Slightly sweet. Flavor was similar to the aroma. Very easy to drink. Not excellent, but a surprisingly decent beer.

On-tap at a chain restaurant bar, served in a imperial pint glass. Poured an transparent bright reddish amber with a rocky pale head, fair amount of laced sticking, a good start. Pleasant aromas of toasted grains and caramel, at first I smelled a little tobacco, but as it settled down just a light woody, herbal hop. This is quite quaffable, easy to drink, smooth medium body, crisp and dry. Tastes of toasted malts and a caramelized sugariness, also a softly tart berry-like fruitiness. The hops are mildly bitter, touches of green wood, herbal in the finish. I thought this was enjoyable, a nice middle of the road Irish Red Ale.

Bottle and served in yet another ye olde pint glass: Reddish hue with some small floaties (WTF this is bottle conditioned?) and a fading white head which left some lace. The weak aroma does show some basic caramel, toffee, bready and pale, nutty malts along with a dash of spearmint leaves and a heather and flowery ester. The taste is mildly malty at first but quickly moved towards a mild roast and herbal midsection. The finish is sadly musty but could be a product of age. A bland but quaffable mouth feel. What can be said about an generic "Irish Ale" other than been there, done that.