Type: Beer – Smoked Beer
Name: Rivertown Brewing Company – War: Smoked Red Ale
Price: $2.99
Made: Cincinnati, OH
Alc/Vol: 5.1%
“War is a smoked Irish-style red ale, brewed with a wonderfully potent domestic cherry wood smoked barley. Rye and roast barley are there to remind you that war means fire as well as smoke, and a liberal dose of traditional UK amber malt provide the bold body war deserves. Save one for December 21st 2012
Batch No. 2 in The Brewmaster’s Reserve Limited Release Series. War is the second of four brews released centered around the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 signifying worlds end on December 21st 2012.“
Let me just start by saying, I love red ales. I truly do. However, if you love red ales, do not underestimate the word “Smoked” in this beer.
The beer pours a deep amber color with a mild lacing head that lasts. The nose is…well I’m not sure what it is. I can pull something off of it but I can’t grasp much from it, a mild sweetness in the back masked by an oakey/peat scent. It could be that today is a stuffed nose kind of day, but that doesn’t stop the flavor from coming through.
It has a smokey taste alright, deep and rich like. You can taste the smoked malts and a bit of caramel in it but the underlying flavors are lost or not present. It isn’t a bad beer, and I wish I could find a way to better describe the initial taste other than smokey. Maybe it is a bit of tobacco a bit of that grainy flavor you get from smoked bourbon barrels.
The beer itself is OK. I give it a 3 out of 5 bananas. It isn’t bad but it just doesn’t win me over, especially with some of the flavors that I love in my Irish Red ale beers. I’m not sure what got them all riled up to create a special batch of beers for the whole Mayan scare but from what I am getting out of it It isn’t all that special of a brew. Hopefully their classics make up the difference.
