Mackinaw Brewing Red Eight Ale

Brewed by Mackinaw Brewing Company
Style: Irish Ale
Traverse City, Michigan USA

On tap at the brewery. Clear red amber with small off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet toasted malt with some fruit, orange. Flavor is sweet fruit with nuttiness, metallic, some herbalness. Medium to light, active carbonation. Fine enough.

Draft sample at the brewpub. Pours a clear deep amber color with a medium sized diminishing white head. The aroma is lightly toasted bread, light caramel malt, a touch metallic, with a hint of an over ripe apricot. The flavor was mostly bland: caramel malt, toasted bread with the edges slightly burned, a bit dry, not much fruit or hop presence at all. Thin and cold. Nothing too inspiring here.

On tap at the brewery. Pours a ruddy amber color, mostly transparent, with a thin layer of fizzy white head. The nose has a bit of an astringent burnt bread crust thing going on; a bit coppery and dry malt presence with minimal hops. Light to medium bodied, sparkling carbonation mouthfeel. Pleasantly dry, but the malt character doesn’t really provide much depth. There’s a bit of an astringent, almost roast-like quality to the malt without a lot of mid-malt chewiness to round it out. No major off-flavors, which makes this the most drinkable of the beers I tried at this brewpub visit, but the un-adulterated flavors weren’t too impressive, either. Roasted bread crusts and astringent barley husks. Clean finish.

Draft sampler at brewpub. Clear reddish brown color with an average frothy white head that mostly diminished with fair lacing. Light sweet toasted aroma. Light to medium body with soft carbonation. Medium balanced flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration.

This is really interesting flavor wise, with some fine spicy chracteristics (cinnamon, even) in the sweeter malt. Too bad it’s so thin.