Upland Ard Ri

Brewed by Upland Brewing Company
Style: Irish Ale
Bloomington, Indiana USA

Small pour (approximately 3 oz.), on tap at Gitchee Gumee Brewfest in Superior, WI on 4-5-08. This was the fourth of 12 beers that I rated (out of about 20 total beers that I tried). Pours a hazy, dark tan / light brown. Small to moderate amount of beige head. I don’t get much from the weak aroma, but it is floral, fruity, and dusty. Very sweet and intriguing taste. Sweet cream, honey, and red fruit flavors. Full body. Oily and smooth in the palate. Good liveliness on the tongue. If the aroma had been stronger, this could have been my favorite beer of the evening. It should be classified as an American strong ale rather than an Irish ale on this site.

My first "Imperial Irish Red Ale" - called The Ard Ri on the label, which I suppose is important to someone somewhere... Looks good, deep amber with a touch of red and a solid ecru head. Loads of lace. The aroma is caramel, toffee, apple, with some grapefruit and zest. The citrusy bitterness is a bit strong for an Irish Ale, but I appreciate it. It blends well will the dull malty sweetness that’s more characteristic of the style. Not bad.

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Tap and served in standard pint glass: Reddish amber hue with a nice creamy head and fair lacing. The aroma has notes of caramel and toffee, rye bread, mild apple and orange esters, flowery, hint of coriander and dusty yeast. The taste is rather straight forward but it is balanced and quite drinkable with mild hop bitterness and acidity countering the caramelized malting. A light spice upon the finish as well. The mouth feel is smooth and has a slight bite around the edges. Overall a solid example of an "Irish Red" even if a tad too high on the ABV. (Seems that the 2008 batch is improved over the 2007 by looking at the ratings).

Draft at J.K. O’Donnell’s, Fort Wayne, IN.Medium sized head that was creamy, semi-fizzy and tan and mostly lasting, fair amount of lacing, no carbonation observed, semi-opaque, and an amber hue. Nose was malty, caramel, mildly hoppy, light citrus, some floral hoppiness, and grapefruit. Flavor was lightly bitter, malty, caramel, light citrus, hoppy, fruity, and a lingering hoppy aftertaste. Medium in body.Very quaffable, nicely done and balanced, would drink this again, and worthy of a try.Very tasty indeed!

draft at O’Donnell’s in Ft Wayne - Pours amber with a thin head. The aroma has caramel malts and ample floral hops notes. The flavor has a hell of a hop kick to it that melts nicely into a robust caramel malt presence before concluding with a long hops finish. It looks like the recipe for this one has changed at least once, but all I can say is that this incarnation is very good.

March 2008, on tap at Rich O’s - Pours dark amber and hazy with a mostly maintained wispy light tan head. Aroma of resinous grapefruit, sticky malt. Tastes of toffee, resinous C hops and tropical fruits. Full bodied, resinous with lush carbonation.
March 2009, on tap at Rich O’s - Pours dark golden with a mostly receding off-white head. Aroma of piney hops, citrus, alcohol, hop resin. Taste is hop resins, citric acid, and grapefruit. Mouthfeel is full bodied with moderate resins and moderate carbonation.

This draft brew from a restaurant served fully diminished yet when poured into a seperate glass poured a large sized head of foamy fine to medium sized tan colored bubbles that were fully diminished and left behind a semi-opaque light red brown colored body and thick foamy lacing. The aroma was malty bready and doughy. The mouth feel was strongly tingly at the start and weakly tingly at the finish with a strong vinous note throughout. The vinous flavor contained notes of strong hops dough and brown malt. A wonderful best in class brew. A very good beer with a kick.

’08 Bottle: Translucent red/amber pour with a small white head and pretty good lacing characteristics. This is really quite fantastic...notes of sweet bread dough, light fruity esters, light malt, caramel and a bit of floral hops. Very creamy and full bodied especially for the style. This is so well balanced with the caramel malt and floral hops complimenting each other perfectly. The other flavors of light, sweet fruits and the subtle earthiness meld together very well to support the spine of this fine brew. Up to this point most of Upland’s brews have seemed pretty average-good but this takes the cake. Well done Caleb!