Hale's Red Menace Big Amber - Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub

woemad

Washington

3.18/5  rDev -6.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

12oz bottle purchased at Jim's Homebrew in Spokane for $1.66. The label features the statue of Comrade Lenin that was rescued from a post-Soviet scrapheap and placed in "the center of the universe" (Fremont, Seattle, if you didn't get the memo). It commands the drinker to "join the party." I think this party has been over for a while, though there's no freshness date to confirm it.

Poured a reddish amber color, with a small white head that vanished quicker than Jim West's hopes for a gubernatorial bid. Tiny bits of lace can be seen on the sides of the glass.

Smell was of mild, herbal hops and bready malt. Not a terribly interesting smelling beer, but not bad smelling, either.

The taste is a bit more interesting than the smell, but not even an old bolshevik would say it was in a revolutionary way. The bulk of this beer's flavor comes from it's mildly sweet maltiness. There is also a mild, herbalish hoppy bite to provide balance, but the hoppiness is subordinate to the malts. This is ok tasting, but it's far from being anything worth writing home about.

Very low amount of carbonation. It could definitely use a little more in this department. This is medium bodied, but the lack of carbonation makes it seem almost leaden. Agitating the beer heavily seems to help it, but that's a temporary fix, unless the drinker wants to be constantly spinning their pintglass.

This is either too old, or it is a flawed beer. I'm not sure which. This could be a halfway decent session amber if there was a little more to it in several areas.

Serving type: bottle

08-15-2005 04:55:14 | More by woemad

BuckeyeNation

Iowa

4.05/5  rDev +19.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Flawless coppery orange suffused with a dash of red. The ecru colored cap picks up a faint orange cast from the beer beneath and looks, for all the world, like it belongs on an IPA. The foam is milkshake thick with a rumpled, heavily pitted surface and leaves scads of pocked lace that covers the majority of the available glass. It doesn't look menacing, but does look good.

I'd call beer this an IPA if I didn't know different. The nose isn't as spectacularly hoppy as the best of that style, but it's certainly more hoppy than almost any amber ale that I can think of. Sweet caramel and brown sugar are appreciated as well. The top notes consist of a Pacific NW hoppiness that reminds me of (from most prominent to least) orange, grapefruit and pine.

While Red Menace Big Amber is still pretty hoppy on the palate, it isn't quite the 'be all and end all' hoppy amber that I'd hoped for. In addition, it feels a tad undermalted. There's no shortage of well-toasted caramel malt flavor though. It's interesting that a small amount of black malt was used. I can't believe that's a common ingredient for a beer of this style.

There's a juicy orange, lemon and grapefruit hoppiness that doesn't dig in as ferociously as I'd like (for which I'll blame the too light body/mouthfeel). The beer is more sour than it is bitter. Bitter attempts to make a comeback on the long finish, but never does completely offset the tangy puckeriness.

The Red Menace label sports a statue of Lenin with a partial border of hop cones. Although it falls short of revolutionary, Hale's had the right idea and deserves points for chutzpah. With a tweak or two, this could be one for the ages, unlike those wannabe revolutionary Communists. That Red Menace is no more, but this Red Menace is alive and kicking.

Serving type: bottle

08-01-2005 22:33:27 | More by BuckeyeNation

troutmask96

Washington

2.9/5  rDev -14.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5

Decent session brew here, but nothing too special. Pours a thick, foamy head that hangs on for a bit. Appearance is a pretty, dark red amber with lots of carbonation bubbles. Taste is biscuity, citrusy, and semi-sweet. Because of all that carbonation this one doesn't go down without a wee bit of gastic distress. All in all a perfectly mediocre amber...

Serving type: bottle

06-27-2005 03:19:29 | More by troutmask96

canucklehead

British Columbia (Canada)

3.75/5  rDev +10.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

This really should not be labelled as a big beer as the flavours are not in your face but rather aimed at drinakbility. I like this beer but it is not a typical big special edition. Lots of malt with a good balance this just goes down easy with an attention to quality. Drink with the feeling that the next pint will also be as smooth.

Serving type: bottle

03-28-2005 04:30:31 | More by canucklehead

RoyalT

Ohio

4.03/5  rDev +18.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance – This one is a dark, brownish-red in color with a beautiful off-white head with moderate retention and good lacing.

Smell – The big leafy citrus hops are evenly mixed with the thick malts. The malts are somewhat biscuity with some good sweetness. The sweets are refined sugars and very well done.

Taste – The hops here are leafy, not the big PacNW pine or super-charged citrus that you often get in these parts. The biscuit from the nose comes out in the taste and is, again, very leafy and almost green. Overall a very powerful and balanced flavor profile.

Mouthfeel – This is much bigger than medium-bodied but I wouldn’t call it full. There’s some vegetal bitterness in the mouth along with moderate carbonation.

Drinkability – This really is a Big Amber Ale that went down quite well. It’s a heavy hitter for sure and offers a rare glimpse of a big, malty ale brewed here in the PacNW.

Serving type: bottle

03-25-2005 03:05:23 | More by RoyalT

freed

Oregon

4.15/5  rDev +22.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

This was recommended by our server at the Rose and Raindrop, and it seemed like a nice way to finish the evening. The glass held an enchantingly deep amber liquid with good clarity and a curious head. The foam was made of a great variety of bubbles sizes like you'd find in pancake batter. It created a nice milkshake look, though I feel that it may have kept the aroma down. It was just slightly sweet and roasty, but that might have also been masked by the yolks sitting behind me having 2-3 cigarettes for ever bottle of PBR they drank. Who drinks PBR in bottles anyway?

The taste was a surprising mix of sweet and solid amber flavors with a brightness from the hop choices. The ale had a wealthy body that filled the mouth and drank easily. The crisp hops gave the beer nice dimension as well.

This ale was quite drinkable, and I'd love to have it again.

Serving type: on-tap

09-23-2004 19:49:26 | More by freed