Cowtown Scarlet Ale

This smells like candy, and tastes like a farm. As horrible as that sounds, after you get over the knee-jerk reaction of disgust, its actually quite interesting. Its a great session beer if you can commit to finishing the first one. Drank many of these before Buckeye games at 27.

On draught at the Pour House Tavern in Gahanna, Ohio. Sampled on 12/21/2006... When I first walked in and glanced at the beers taps, I thought they had Budweiser since the tap handle for this is the same shape and colors (red with white text) as the regular Bud handle. Therefore I proceeded to have a couple pints of Bluemoon Belgian White. I then looked a bit closer at the tap handle and asked about it and found out that it was actually the handle for "town Scarlet Ale", not Bud! I’d never heard of it before, so of course I had to try a pint... Cowtown Scarlet Ale is a clear, reddish amber color with a decent, creamy, off-white head. The aroma and flavor were moderately sweet with some caramel/toffee characteristics. Some hop bitterness hits just after the initial malt flavor. This beer has a light to less-than medium body, a moderate carbonation level, and is fairly smooth. This beer will probably appeal to Buckeye fans and will sell well because of it’s name, but they really need a different tap handle so that it is easier to distiguish and will stand apart from Bud!

On tap at BW3’s in Hilliard, Pours amber with a short offwhite head that didn’t stay very long. Arom is light caramel and floral hops. Flavor is light as well. Light caramel and a bit more to the malty side. Some earthy character as well. Finish is a little harsh with sharp bitterness. Seemed to lack balance to me and the smooth mouthfeel just wasn’t there. Thanks Dogbrick for getting this added to the database..

On draught at Byrne’s Pub. Clear light amber color with a thin off-white head. Minimal lacing. Light malt and caramel aroma with a bit of hops. Light-bodied and fairly sweet with earthy malt and sweet caramel flavoring. Hops bitterness breaks through pretty consistently. The finish is short and vaguely bitter without a lot of flavor. This beer will probably do well here in Columbus based on gimmick value, otherwise it’s pretty run-of-the-mill.