Pizza Port Shark Attack Triple Red Ale

Brewed by Pizza Port (Solana Beach)
Style: American Strong Ale
Solana Beach, California USA

A cold pour yields a rich, gooey amber mucus with amost no head. I can count the bubble spatter. Theres 123 bubbles on the roof of this thing. Maybe thats how many bubbles a dead surfer produces after a shark attack. IDK. Aromas of full on caramel w/ a pinch of citrus. Full nectar and dead as it’s head w/ very little effers. Defined sweetness w/ thick and jammy caramel flavors upfront and a mild hop factor. Theres an interesting aged citrus pulp comonent that protrudes adding complexities. The fnish is bittered mildly w/ citrus rind and has lingering sweetness.

This was a dark red pour with a nice hoppy finish with a nice bittersweet taste and a nice malty body to it overall not a bad beer.CHEERS!

22 oz bottle from Capones that clearly states "Double Red" but who am I to argue with RateBeer?? Pours a deep murky reddish amber with hardly any head, I’m thinking it might have been the glass since I wasn’t at my house but a family members. Aroma is very reminiscent of a barleywine, lots of caramel, toffee and some pineapple and citrus. Full bodied with some noticable alcohol warming. Flavor of caramel, bread, toffee and some pineapple sneaks in there as well. They might as well just go ahead and call this one a BW and just get it over with.

20080616 Bomber. Deep, dark amber-red color, a bit hazed, with a medium sized lasting off-white head. Aroma is full of sweet malts, a bit barley wine-ish, some citrus, more resin, but those hop notes are subdued. Full, coating, mildly sweet body up front, coarse in the middle with emerging resinous hops and sweet but bitter and astringent to finish. A bit of a peppery spice at the end. Tasty, nice, though unremarkable.

This is supposedly a fresh bottling, within the past few weeks. Dark tawny/deep red/autumn colored beer. Nose is fairly nice, dominated by hops of the pine-like, resinous kind, with some malt notes of caramel. Flavor is also nicely hoppy, oily and bitter, well balanced with a malt character of caramel and honey covered fruits. Hop notes of resin, orange rind and dark grapefruit. It’s not as hoppy as I was expecting, but it’s a nice ale.

pours a deep red color with nice white lacing. great hoppy aroma with sweet backbone. flavor is sweet malt and a bit of clean finish. a good beer.

A vigorous pour produces a two-finger thick, tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is a dark, plum colored, amber hue that shows a brilliantly clear, red color and a light carbonation when held up to the light. The aroma smells sweetly of hops as I am pouring this and a deeper inspection of the nose confirms this with ample hop notes of lychee, sweetened grapefruit, tangelo and expressive orange zest. It is really hard for me to smell anything but the hops; this is a bit surprising given the rich red hue, but luckily the hops are very nice smelling.

Sweet tasting and quite smooth feeling with its soft carbonation, towards the middle the beer starts to pick up a biting hop-bitterness that slowly grips the tongue and becomes very pronounced in the long finish. This is nicely balanced between the sweetness up front and the sharp, biting, slightly astringent bitterness that comes to dominate in the finish. The light carbonation adds just a faint tickle to the texture, just enough to keep this from feeling flat. While clearly dominated by citrus and fruit hop notes there is a certain spiciness to this brew that couples with an over that top bergamot-oil / über-citrus zest note up front; it s something like a mix of allspice, mint and hemp oil. This last is definitely noticeable and herbal, but plays a secondary role to the sweeter hop fruit notes.

The fantastically interesting spicy / herbal note that is noticeable, at times explosively, I think is actually partially due to the rich maltiness that is not really all that noticeable on its own. The hop character is just too huge here, but there is obviously a big malt character to this beer that more than anything serves as a vehicle for all of the hop flavors. This really hides its alcohol pretty well too, it really isn’t very boozy at all. Perhaps the alcohol is noticeable just a touch as it couples with the hop notes and provides a touch of pepper-like bite in the finish that melds with the bitterness. As the beer warms it becomes a bit more herbal, more hemp like even, but this only creates more of a balance between the competing hop notes of fruit and herb; the fruit still wins out, and decidedly so, but the other side of the hop coin is definitely an appreciated addition.

This is much nicer than I was expecting, for some reason I was expecting an unbalanced, scathing hop bomb. This is certainly an aggressively hop dominated beer, but there is enough malt to support the hops and keep them from getting overly aggressive or harsh. I really like the mix of hop flavors here; dominated by aromatic & expressive fruitiness, but with a slight backdrop of herbal & hemp oil flavors that is then tethered in the finish by an aggressive, clean, biting bitterness. Something about the slight carbonation & the mix of flavors already here tells me that this would be an absolutely phenomenal beer served via traditional cask & hand pump. There is something about this beer that just makes this really hit the spot right now; I am not sure if it is purely situational, palate driven or if this is just a phenomenal beer. No matter what it is I definitely am loving this beer right now.

Purchased: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Tucson AZ

My bottle may have been old but his beer was just flt. No carbonation at all. Aroma of stale caramel malt and grassy hops with some pepper. Pour was a nice murky brown with no movement. Taste was stale malt with carboard and grass. Mouthfeel was very thick and with no carbonation to liven it up, it just wasn’t for me. Will need to try again.