Redhook Late Harvest Autumn Ale

A fairly play-it-safe fall beer. Right square in the middle between the lighter Summit and the Sam Adams Octoberfest. Pairs with a decent amount of foods as the malt doesn’t overwhelm lighter sandwiches but can still stand with heartier meals. No hint of hops here. A bit masked and opaque in flavor and looks overall, but still a decent drink. You could do worse, but that’s not the motto to drink by, so do better and check out some other higher-rated ambers.

Bottle. Pours amber with an off white head. Caramel malt aroma with a hint of citrusy hops. The flavor is sweet caramel and toast, with a hint of hoppy bitterness. Not bad.

<b>In short: </b>A dirty fluffy fruity beer of some kind (I think I got a bad bottle)
<b>How: </b>Bottle 12oz, consumed a few days after purchase.
<b>The look: </b>Murky dark-orange body topped by a very small beige head.
<b>In long: </b>Ripe fruits, leather and sweat on the nose. Fluffy yeasty body with notes of extra-ripe bananas, juicy ripe citrus, moist, medium sweetnes. This is really not a clean beer, to the contrary. Fortunately the beer is not very tasty so it’s not so bad. I drank the beer just a few days after purchasing it from a little store in Princeton but I had the feeling I was drinking an old tired beer. I hope for Redhook’s sake that I got a bad bottle because the only thing that wasn’t wrong with this bottle was, well, the actual bottle.

Copper orange pour into my glass. Thin, white head, with fine lace clinging to the sides. Malty, earthy, and toasted aroma. Perhaps a faint nuttiness as well. Flavors of roasted malts, earthy and herbal, and sweet caramel. Malts are the main show here and the mouthfeel is a little cloying and sweet. Not real complex, medium bodied and a little watery. Overall, requires very little thought and easy to drink.

THOUGHTS: I was really surprised by this. I’ve been getting a lot of amber ales that were trying to be very hoppy, but this one was more of what I think of as an amber, with nice malt, but also unique because of it’s fruitiness. Not that there weren’t any hops. Just the proper balance of hops to malt. Sort of British. Much better than I was expecting. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium amber with a small to average, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was moderate bread, toasted and caramel malts, light flower and perfume hops, a little fruity and some citrus too. The initial flavor was moderately sweet and lightly acidic; while the finish was light to moderately sweet and lightly acidic and bitter with an average duration. There was caramel, citrus, nutty, toasted malt, a little smoke and flowery, slightly herbal hops. The light to medium body was watery with fizzy carbonation and a light astringent and slightly dry finish.

Bottle. Very normal. Poured a copper color into a shaker. Aroma of malt and floral hops. Flavor is plain and thin. Not my favorite, but my wife liked it.

Draft: Darker copper pour with a large, lasting beige head. Aroma is light of musty malt and some florals. Tastes a bit dirty, and not in the fun kind of way. A bit toasty, floral, and earthy. Just wasn’t really thrilled by this.

Pours an amber hue with medium, foamy, off-white head which lingers. Tastes of light malts and some hops with much carbonation. Rather unimpressive with no very interesting flavors to it.