Upland Ard Ri

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

Name: Ard RI Imperial Red
Date: 04/26/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Rich O’s

muddy burnt orange, dense creamy head, thick lace, sweet caramel malt aroma with lots of floral hops and very light fruits, stick sweet dark caramel flavor, balanced with lots of citrus hops with an earthy edge, nice biscuit character brings it back to being a red ale, best Upland ever and quite possibly the best imperial red, and then the sweet butterscotch comes in the very last sip but too late to detract from the overall experience

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

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.

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.

[2007]An Imperial Red? Hmph. Draught at Upland. Cloudy amber, creamy beige head in a snifter, beautiful. Nose is malt and a little vanilla, Belgian yeast with some pudding. Taste also has malt and Belgian yeast, above avg bitterness, dry. Some dark fruit and caramel. Healthy dose of coriander. Actually, this is way overspiced. Smooth with well-hidden alcohol. Medium-full body, aftertaste a bit slimy. Definitely benefits from a warm-up. Overall, a nice shot at elegance, but falls a bit short. And not so Irish! [3.2]

[2008] New batch, and from the bottle this time. Sweetish (deliciously rich) caramel aroma inflected with Rose hips. Mocha and dust. Dark copper pour with a beige, rocky head. Taste is all caramel and alcohol, dark and lightly bitter, dry and sticky with light hop funk on the fullish body. Some really nice toffee notes and lingering sweaty, musty hop oils. Butterscotch and light citrus, really thick and gummy and delicious. Viscous sludge. But where did all the spices go? The alcohol is way too prominent here, it’s too boozy, but some will like that. May not be a session, but it’s pretty close to an unsweetened, hoppy candy bar, and I no longer object to the "Irish" label. I’ll take this any day over the other Indiana Irish heavyweight, FFF’s Brian Boru - what a difference a year makes! [4.0]

Bottle. Murky dark ruby color with no head. Very malty aroma with caramel notes. Thick body with toffee and nice caramel flavor. Light roasted bittersweet finish. This is good stuff.

12oz bottle split. Nice creamy malt/hop aroma. Dark orange-brown, looks filtered. Says Imperial Red Ale so that’s the category I’ll rate from. This beer is excellent. Reminds me of the Belgian Bierre de Corsaire, pretty impressive. Hops are ever present, but the thick malt more than holds it’s own. I’d love to pick up a six-pack of this in the future.

’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!

Bottle thanks to thedm. I didn’t decant this as well as I could have, so I got a murky reddish amber color with a sticky khaki head. Sweet nose with caramel, light toast and alcohol. Thick, sweet beer with lots of caramel, toffee, malt syrup, light toast, and noticable alcohol. The finish shows a piney hop and more more alcohol. Really easy to drink for the strength. Nice beer.