Firehouse Chukkar Ale

Brewed by Firehouse Brewing Company (SD)
Style: English Pale Ale
Rapid City, South Dakota USA

If you are ever in Rapid City, SD, you must try this beer. The aroma is delicious. The flavor profile is delicate. The mouthfeel due to the steady, well-balanced carbonation adds to its overall drinkability. The beer pours a translucent light golden-red color. The head, purposeful in size, leaves a decent off white residual lace as a fine cover upon the glass. The first thing you sense is a very mild and pleasant apricot-peach in the nose. Not a hint of astringence. Crisp and clean with the start just the right amount of sweet, lots of malt, the top well-balanced in feel. Finish is perfect: the hops are subtle in their spicy bite, with no unpleasant aftertaste. Malt sweetness is mostly derived from residual sugars due to the meager hop bitterness. Finishes light, crisp and clean - perfect with food. A unique experience. Your palate is graced with a number of complex flavors at first, and the joy is sorting them out and identifying: spicy yet sweet hops, with just a hint of clean tartness; a gentle undertow of soft malts to give it a full bodied English Pale Ale balance. Yeast adds a little to the body and beautifully tempers the experience. There is no alcohol taste. An initial simplicity upfront is ensued by sweet malt, then tapers quickly. Exquisitely crafted. Would to heaven someone with a lot of money will begin bottling Chukkar Pale Ale! There is nothing close to it in my area. Without sounding tendentious, (I own no stock in Firehouse Brewery!) this is the best beer I have tasted in 33 years of tasting. Period.

Clear amber color with only a hint of red. Disappionting small off white head. The aroma is pleasantly malty. Unfortunately I could not detect the hops in the aroma. The flavor is very well balanced with a nice hop and malty dominance. Carbonation is well balanced to its body. The finish is crisp and clean which is uncommon for the malty mouth feel. Overall I would highly recommend going out of your way to try this beer.

This didn’t really taste like a pale ale at all. It actually had a head to it which was unusual as the other beers I had tried up to this point from them didn’t have much of a head. It wasn’t my favorite of their brews but it wasn’t the worst either. They should serve their beers cold though.

Nice amber reddish color,small head that faded quickly.The aroma was lightly malty with a decent hop showing some citrus but nothing that really reached out and grabbed you.The flavor was something i like though.Nice hop showing with a malty side some what bitter but not overly done with a good citrusy side towrds the end.I’d have to say out of the brews i tryed from them this is probably the best one of them.

RBSG 2007. Another SoDak from Skyview. Growler. Copper color with no head. Slightly hopped aroma. The malt is a nice mix of bitter and sweet: not so balanced it isn’t either, but there are definite sweet hits and bitter hits. Slight caramel finish.

Last stop (and final beer) of the return trip during ABA Beer Tour ’07. Sampled on draught at the brewpub restaurant in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota. Pours a clear coppery amber brew with a decent off-white head that slowly dissolves and leave behind a good lacing. Aroma of rich caramel malt, candi sugar, some citrus with some grassy hops. Taste is fruity sweet, heavy alcohol, medium bodied and lightly carbonated. Flavors picked up include caramel malt, light peach and lemon zest. Finish is soft, slightly sweet with a peppery bitter and alcohol burn aftertaste.

Has a light amber color and a malted smell. Taste is fairly balanced with the right amount of malt and hops. Overall a pretty beer not that I had a bad one from this place.

RBSG 2007: Growler: Poured a clear gold with a white head. Aroma, light fruity notes, some sweet malts. Flavor, bready, yeasty, floral. Soft carbonation, smooth mouth feel. Not bad.