Hairy Eyeball Ale - Lagunitas Brewing Company

DrDoitchbig

Michigan

3.48/5  rDev -9.8%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance: Poured a surprising chocolate brown hue with some tinges of orange and red. It's probably one of the darkest strong ales I've seen, but it is a catch all style. The cream colored head started off at about one and a half fingers and stuck around throughout leaving generous, finger width gashes of lacing along the way.

Smell: Despite my numerous attempts at agitating the beer the aroma on this is pretty weak. The aroma that is here is mainly compromised of caramel malts and some earthy, floral hops.

Taste: There was a good base going on in the smell, but it was just too weak. Thankfully the taste department picks up where the smell left off and kicks it up a notch in the process. This is a fairly balanced beer with perhaps a slight edge going to the malts. Caramel and toffee come to mind with some traces of vanilla in the background. The hops are earthen, spicy, perhaps a tad medicinal with a flash of pine. Deep down there are some fruity esters hanging around. This beer has some really nice malt characteristics, but I wish they were playing second fiddle to the hops. I suppose that's just the way I like my strong ales.

Mouthfeel: A solid medium for the body, with a very nice creaminess to it. Carbonation is also solid, could be a tad higher.

Drinkability: Perhaps I've been drinking too many highly hopped beers as of late, but to me this tastes like more of an Irish Red than an American Strong Ale. The hop and malt profiles both match up fairly well to the Irish Red category. It's a nice easy going beer and I would gladly drink another, but this style has more to offer. The alcohol is covered very well.

This is the third beer I've had from Lagunitas and it's starting to become appearant that they are a little hit or miss in my book. One of the beers was fantastic, one was middle of the road and the last I just didn't enjoy. This one was the middle of the road.

Serving type: bottle

03-10-2010 07:54:24 | More by DrDoitchbig

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