Redhook Sunrye

Brewed by Redhook Brewery
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Woodinville, Washington USA

Medium cloudy gold color. Traces of a white head on top. The aroma is oranges and jelly beans. The light citrus taste is refreshing. It also has white bread. This is alright as a lawnmower beer, but I would prefer a hefe.

Draught at the Ginger Man. Totally meaninglsess beer. Ultra light body. I took this for a pale lager. No bitterness. No malt profile. Nothing.

Bottle: Moderate rye aroma with some light wheat and light hop aroma. Pours a very pale transparent yellow with a slight haze. Rye with a light Euro-lager flavor. Light hops in the finish. Have yet to have a Redhook brew that is even mediocre at this point.

2005 bottle at Julios Spring Beer Fest, 4/02/05. Well, it was certainly ridicuous the amount of people gathered round the booth that were freaking out about this beer. I’m not quite sure what they were excited about. Was it the light spice of rye? Was it the light body, high carbonation and little to no malt appearance?? Just a fizzy, lightly citric product, of no consequential malt, a little bit of honey, to be fair, and some dry, grain flavors. Just seems like another bland, too-easy-drinking attempt at a crowd pleaser.

Not surprised by the blandness and non-descriptivity of this beer. We call it forgettable. Because it is. Tastes of water with a bit of wheat. Don’t look that great. Boo.

Bottle. Pours a very cloudy yellow with a small light beige head. Aroma is lightly sweet, some grassiness, graininess (rye?...maybe not). Taste is nothing to rave about....sweet, mild grains, etc. Body is not terribly thin, but it doesn’t pull this one up to respectability.

(12 oz bottle: Whole Foods in San Diego/Hillcrest, CA) I rated Redhook’s original rye beer 8 years ago, and this Sunrye literally pales in comparison. The nose is slightly spicy, so I was expecting this rye beer to have a slightly spicy flavor. As if! There’s hardly any flavor to this beer at all. It’s as bland and innocuous as could be, like drinking a light beer. I’m tasting mild grain/wheat malt, light citrus, and some very gentle hops that could just as easily be imagined. Very little sweetness. Thin, watery palate, again, like a light beer. Pale yellow in color, slightly cloudy, and a fair amount of off-white particles suspended in the beer. White head settles to a partial film, but leaves some patchy lacing on the glass. Not a terrible tasting beer because there’s hardly anything to it, but why waste the calories when you can drink a light beer and get nearly the same effect.

Pretty orange/gold with virtually no head; murky with a significant amount of tiny sediument; very tiny, active bubbles. Aroma lemon/floral. Flavor is light though hoppy, with significant wheatiness; the hop bitterness tapers off rather quickly into stale hay. Not bad but too light and overly carbonated.