Pizza Port Shark Attack Triple Red Ale

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

Bomber pours a transparent, slightly hazy, ruby amber with a thin, sudsy slightly off white head. Smells great, a real hopfest; grapefruits, lemons, pine resin and tropical fruits. Flavor is very well rounded with plenty of citrus fruits, some nice boozy alcohol, sweet candy malts and toasted, hearty grains. Very well balanced. Finish is a touch syrupy and has plenty of citrus bitterness. Drinkable and hoppy, but certainly not ground breaking stuff.

Bottle (as "Shark Attack Double Red Ale", 9% abv). Pours a murky brown with very little head. Aroma of very rich sweetness, alcohol, slight bitter hops. Reminiscent of an imperial stout based on the aroma only. Flavor strongly of sweet malt, same alcohol and bitter hops. Finish of crisp, sweet apple (subtle). The mouthfeel is a bit thinner than the aroma suggests, but it is not weak, just light. However, the mouthfeel does get a bit thicker as the beer warms. What I liked most about this beer is its nice rich sweetness. Very enjoyable

My bottle (22oz) shared at ’Rudolf’s May 2008 Tasting’. As "Port Brewing Shark Attack Double Red Ale." Pours a hazy orange-red with lots of floaties and a small white head. Nice aroma of piney resiny hops backed by toasted caramel malt. Flavour’s malty, plenty hoppy and has a nice, long bitter finish. Some alcohol, but well hidden for the most part. Medium bodied. Very good stuff!

Bottle: Pours a dark brown with some red highlights. Aroma is strong and sweet toasted malt, citrus rind. Flavor is also sweet caramel malt, some piney hop, and a lingering bitterness I was not expecting from red ale. Pretty solid.

Bottle (22oz). As "Port Brewing Shark Attack Double Red Ale." That’s a seriously red pour - deep firebrick red, clear with tiny suspended particles, and a smallish but long-lasting tan creamy-fizzy head. Smells yummy - big toasty-sweet rye malt and equally insistent resin/spruce fresh acidic hop bitterness. The taste - it follows mostly (mostly!) but it loses malt body and some fresh hop bitterness to strong alcohol and biting acidity - don’t get me wrong, it’s good, and I’m going to wrap up and enjoy the hell out of the average-bodied, acidic, boozy-bitter finishing MoFo - but I’d like a little more body.

2008-05-17. Dark amber body with a quick beige head. Hoppy aroma, modest green resiny hops. (7+) Flavour is similar, with a good amount of bitterness, resiny hop character, and a solid malt base. (7+) Average plus palate. (3+) . Pretty solid, quite drinkable. Alcohol is invisible. At Rudolf’s, shared by Blankboy

Bottle: Deep amber to brown in color with only some light lacing retaining. The nose shows sweet malt, grapefruit, herbs, pine, caramel and spice. In the mouth it is medium to full-bodied, sweet, rich and intense. The hops emerge on the finish which shows some bitterness. This is a well-balanced beer with the malt shining through in the midpalate and hops joining in toward the finish.

22 ounce bottle from Capone’s. Pour is a darker red toward brown. The head is sort of dark beige with spotty lace. The nose has plenty of pungent hops, along with caramel/toffee, with underlying butterscotch. The flavor is features pine hops along with quite a bit of sweet caramel flavor that I’m not too much a fan of here. The palate is pretty full bodied with what seems to be an appropriate amount of carbonation. The finish seems a bit of the sweet side, but the bitterness is there as well. I guess that make it balanced.