Red Ale!! I love red ales. They are hard to find. Not many breweries have one that they mass produce. Sierra Nevada for example did a limited edition red ale called Red Taxi that was only sold on tap at the pub. I loved it. I was peeved that Sierra Nevada didn't bottle it or continue to make it. I only had two pints! I still pine for it, obviously. I insisted that we get a couple red ales for Operation Monthly if we could find them. We only found two and bought them both.

The Honey Red we had was unlike any red ale I have ever had. Red ales are essentially pale ales with roasted malt added. The roasted malt adds a mellow sweetness, a light nutty quality to soften the hop punch. The particular red ale was made by a company that makes mead, Rabbit's Foot Meadery.

I was so excited to have red ale and had been thinking about it all day. When Keith poured it and brought it to me it was a beautiful copper color. Despite my excitement, I had a headache and wasn't quite ready to drink alcohol so I let it sit there for a bit. When I finally drank it, I was so disappointed! It tasted like mead. I was expecting the honey flavor, but it actually felt like drinking wine. It tasted like someone poured mead into my beer while I wasn't looking. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't a red ale either. The mead taste completely covered the nutty, hoppy flavor red ale should have. In my opinion red ales are the perfect balance of hop and malt flavor. None of that balance was evident in this beer.

I like mead. I like honey flavored ales. There is a local brewery that makes one that I really like. I don't like mead ale. Mead and Ale are two different kinds of alcohol and should stay in their corners.The only thing I liked about this beer was the bottle and the label art. I am a sucker for pin-up art. If you are curious about red ales, skip this one.