Redhook Ale Brewery: Slim Chance

The line between macrobrew and microbrew has been blurring in recent years. Macro-breweries have begun to create fuller bodied beers (see Budweiser American Ale), some micro-breweries have grown so much in size that they now are dubbed craft breweries (see Sierra Nevada Brewing Company), and some breweries have formed alliances and mutual investment agreements in an attempt to tap into the micro and macro brew markets. (see Redhook brewery).

Redhook use to be a small Washington brewery that has since formed alliances with Budweiser and Widmer and has expanded its distribution and line of beers. Redhook's most recent creation is a "Light Ale" known as "Slim Chance". I was intrigued by the idea of an ale with a lighter body so I gave the beer a shot. Don't make the same mistake as I did; Slim Chance is no light ale. It's a run of the mill light lager. It looks and tastes like many light lagers: think Amstel Light or Modelo Light. While Slim Chance doesn't have the metallic taste of some light beers it lacks any significant body and has a watery aftertaste.

I probably gave Redhook took much credit when I purchased this beer. I love Redhook's Winterhook and Copperhook and assumed they wouldn't create the traditional light lager. But they did. As America becomes re-obsessed with beer it will be interesting to see how this micro/macro balance progresses. More and more research, books, and movies are being done on the beer industry and I'm excited to learn more. In the meantime, I think I'll grab a real ale with more flavor. Cheers.

Redhook Ale Brewery: ESB

It's the day after thanksgiving which means I'm consuming leftovers. I've been eating turkey sandwiches and stuffing all day. And it's all still pretty good. I also took home the leftover beer so it's time wash down the remaining portions of yesterday's feast. Having celebrated 10+ years of thanksgiving in Washington state I've had my share of Northwest brews during the holiday season. Even though we celebrated further south this year, I think my family picked up some Pyramid and Redhook out of habit. And I can't complain, as I love WA beer.

Redhook ESB is a widely available bitter. It's changed it's label twice since I moved out of Washington but it's still pretty easy to locate on the shelf. You won't find many breweries that have an ESB as their flagship, but that's because it's difficult to make a fine brew in this style. Since I've had some bad experiences with other breweries' attempts to create an 'extra special bitter' it's time to give this 'original ale' some praise.

For being a bitter style beer, this ale is smoother than you might expect. The only bitter aftertaste you'll receive is a touch of leafy hop flavor on the back of your pallate. The beer is just bitter enough to live up to its style but calm enough to enjoy leisurely. It's a wonderful mellow beer that's also not too thick or too watery. The initial sips have soft malt flavors floating around but nothing too dark that you find in a brown ale. As mentioned a staple of mine.

If you watched Washington's once prominent Seattle Seahawks football team get destroyed on national television yesterday you might feel bad for Washingtonians. But don't feel too bad, because there is plenty of good beer to drown tasty food and bad memories. Cheers.