SanTan VOLTRON Collaboration Imperial Red Ale

Brewed by SanTan Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Chandler, Arizona USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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on tap during beer week 3/5/11. amber color... ow head. decent retention. aromas and flavors of caramel mostly... folowed by hoppy spiciness, green, resin, dank and candy. two times i had this (out of ten or so) it had a buttery quality which was really off putting. even without this the mouth feel was still quite oily. odd. 6/3/6/3/14--

Deep copper with creamy tan head and lace. Aroma of large resiny hops and sweet caramel. Sweet caramel with a nice resiny finish and a bit unusual musty finish. Medium bodied but a bit fizzy.

on tap-pours a light tan head and amber color. Aroma is pine, medium malt-caramel. Taste is pine hops with some bite, nice backbone, medium malt-caramel.

Dark brown color/ tan head. dark fruit, spicy caramel, leafy aromas. Medium bodied. Nice toasted caramel, sweet spice, leafy hop flavors--good.

(On draught at Papago). Pours clear mahogany with off-white head. Aroma has lots of fruity, citrusy hops. Also, some pine/wood. Taste is malt sweet with bright hop bitterness. Medium bodied with sticky texture. Finish is dry and bitter. This is a good beer and a great showing by the AZ brewing crew. Cheers, guys and well done.

Sampled @ AZ Strong Beer Fest...aroma of caramel, toffee, and brown sugar. Flavor shows a bit of hops but predominately roasted malt, candied sugar, and citrus. Medium to light mouthfeel. Love the collaboration concept, just not the final product.

Draft at RBWG Grand Tasting. I ened up having WAY more of this (and the Red Poppy, and the Chili Pepper Speedway) than were good for me. Pours clear red, thick white head, spotty lacing. Nose is spicy grapefruit, some red lollipop, Nelson Sauvin dominated, seemingly. Great body and richness, light and surprisingly dry red fruit, spicy grapefruit, great stuff!

My last recorded & remembered beer of RBWG 2011, a great event and lots of awesome beers and great people
Appearance: Dark brown with a medium sized beige head and great sticky lacing
Aroma: Citrus and grapefruit
Taste: Citrus, grapefruit, caramel and spices
Great beer, good job to all the breweries involved with this.

Sampled at RBWG 2011. Pours a amber red with a tan head. Aroma is caramel and hops. Flavor is herbal hops, caramel, spices with some underlying fruit and sweetness. Nice brew.

A solid pour produces a frothy 1.5 finger thick, full tan colored head with amber tinge to it that leaves some nice layered lacing as it slowly subsides. The beer is a dark red stained, concentrated amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, pretty, ruby-red hue when held up to the light. Smells of sweet, malty caramel, from a distance, but when you go in it is basically a huge hop character that dominates the nose; notes of sweet tangelo, lots of ruby-red grapefruit, vibrant lychee, a hint of guava and perhaps a hint of herbal character towards the finish, but just a hint as the nose is all about the huge fruity hop focus. I can’t believe how good this smells; I have had most of the Imperial Red beers that went in to this blend and by far the SanTan version was the best, so I figured this would be at best a washed out version of that beer, but this is not the case at all. The rich malt plays a purely supporting role here, and really helps to boost the juicy, sticky hop fruitiness found in the nose; the tropical fruit character is just huge.

A pungent herbal bitterness greets me as this hits the front of my tongue. As it rolls across it picks up a nice tropical fruit character that is healthily balanced by a biting bitterness that takes on a menthol like edge at times as it lingers on grippingly in the finish. Specific hop flavors of bright berries, tangelo / cherry jam, juicy lychee, slightly funky guava, hemp-tinged menthol, perhaps a touch of pine tar, The malt character is, again, not nearly as pervasive as I was fearing; it does contribute a sweet base that supports / boosts the hop fruit character. The malt is definitely crystal malt laden, but for some reason it is held well in check here, though it does contribute flavors of toasted whole grain malt, crystal malt caramelized sweetness, some spicy whole grain character and toffee notes that seem to have a cherry candy like edge to them (though the fruit part of this is definitely hop influenced). During and after a sip there is an oral-nasal influence that has a particularly piquant, dank hop quality that I almost want to describe as cheesy / skunky marijuana like character that is only noticeable from time to time. As the beer warms up the herbaceous, green hemp character becomes a bit more noticeable. This has a chewy body to it that does not get cloying, but is definitely note a beer to be quaffed in mass quantity.

I really like the singular hop focus that the nose has, but I also like that the flavor is so much more balanced between the herbal, fruit and bitter hop notes as well as by the rich malt character. Quite surprising in the end, I wasn’t nearly expecting to like this as much as I am.