Style: American Red Ale
Format: 473ml can
ABV: 6.0% IBU: ~40
Date tasted: 20 Mar 2021

Final Rating: 31/50

• Appearance: 4/5
• Aroma: 8/10
• Taste: 12/20
• Mouthfeel: 2/5
• Overall: 5/10

Overview

It’s 7AM on a Saturday, which probably sounds bad to people who have never been shift workers, but I just got home after being up all night and really felt like a nice, cold beer. It’s been warming up lately, which also means I haven’t been sleeping well and likely won’t again today before heading to work again tonight (the initially warming and cooling aggravate old sports and army injuries and I’m not comfortable for a few weeks), so beer is my consolation. The Ruby Tears was actually an impulse buy. I had two spots free in my beer carrier as I was leaving the store and saw it sitting there staring at me: a 6% Amber Ale with cool can design that I’ve never heard of, so I naturally picked a couple up. Today seems as good a day as any to give it a try.

Appearance

It pours fairly cloudy, with a moderately foamy head of fine bubbles. Very few bubbles throughout, though perhaps they are masked by the cloudiness. I will admit that haze wasn’t something I expected from an Amber, but I’m interested to see how that plays out.

Aroma

Various sources report this sits at about 40IBU, and it certainly has the strong smell of hops to back that up with some lemon and apple notes in the background. Fairly standard aroma that’s fairly intriguing, but nothing to really set it apart from the crowd.

Taste

Oranges and honey come across faintly, but almost overpowering with its hoppy bitterness sadly. The aftertaste is a lingering toasted grain flavour. I do really enjoy bitter/hoppy/malty brews, but this one seems to be to the detriment of the assisting flavours. Despite the hops being borderline overpowering, that bitterness is still fairly middling. I’d prefer it to be more balanced, or at least to have a stronger punch from the hops. Not uninteresting, but not inspired either.

Mouthfeel

Plain. Very little carbonation detected with no real excitement to speak of otherwise. Much like with the aroma and taste: not bad, but nothing to really grab you either.

Overall

Decent beer for my mood. I wouldn’t avoid it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick it up either. Might be a decent substitute if looking for a weak IPA or ISA rather than a Red or Amber, especially if I’m just looking for a good buzz given the high ABV and drinkability. Bonus points if it’s a hot day I’m sitting outside as I do find hoppy beers to be more refreshing.

References:

Click here for an explanation of rating scale.