North Coast Red Seal Ale

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

I was pleasantly surprised that a beer of this distribution and this price could be so good. It is a gorgeous, natural red that comes on refreshing, sweet, and chock full of hoppiness, but not to the abusiveness that many beers find necessary. It is a great beer to buy in a six pack and enjoy with friends in that it adds to the night as apposed to becoming the focus of it.

Bottle. Pours a reddish copper with a really nice thick head that laces well right to the end. Smells of bread, hops, and some spice. Good somewhat strong flavor with a bitterish finish. Has an almost IPA thing going on.

From bottle... poured copper with off-white head. Immediate citrus aroma gave way to malts. Flavor is odd. Malty for the most part, but something sharp shoots down the middle of my tongue that I can’t identify. Interesting beer. Good session beer.

Imperial pint draft served at Charlestons (New Lenox, IL). Pours a very nice darker amber, a little hazy with fluffy whitish head that sticks around. Aromas are mildly citrus hop bouquet up front, with a touch of grass and comparable carmel malt backbone. Initial is lightly bitter up front, touches of lemony citrus and light grassy hops dancing with a decent bitterness on the palate and light carmel and bready malt in the body. Pale malts? Light in body, a touch underwhelming flavorwise, but sessionable. Decent. Kind of an Amber/APA hybrid.

<b>Bottle 355ml.</b>
Clear light to medium amber orange color with a small, fizzy, good lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, moderate hoppy, grapefruit. Flavor is moderate sweet and bitter with a average duration. Body is medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft. [260908]

Bottle. Pours a clear amber to mahogany colour, with a small offwhite head. Aroma is grapefruit hops and even a little caramel. Well balanced flavour between the hops and malt. A little strange, metallic in the finish but an easy drinking APA. Solid.

Poured from the bottle into a pint glass. Pour produced a dark amber body topped by a rocky off-white head which diminished mostly, leaving soapy islets of foam. Floral hops evident in the aroma. Medium bodied, with low carbonation, this ale packs the bitterness of the hops at the end of the flavor profile. The roast of the malts compliment the hops, settling down to a burnt caramel taste on the tongue.

Bottle. Pours a hazy dark honey color with a generous foamed milk color head which reduces down fairly steadily. Aromas of malt, and a bit of caramel sweetness. Medium body, with more of the malty sweetness coming through. Lightly bitter finish. Good, but nothing really stands out either good or bad on this one, making it far from memorable for me.