Red Hook Treblehook 2009

Brewery: Red Hook Ale Brewery
Location: Portsmouth, NH & Woodinville, WA
Style: Barleywine
Brewery Website
Rating: A

Today's tasting is the 2009 vintage Treblehook from Red Hook Brewery. The bottle I tasted was bottled on 9/5/2009. The beer pours up amber in color with a slight haze and a few sediment particles. The nose finds malt syrup along with bread, raisins and caramel.

On the palate there is a smooth, rich malt syrup flavor. There are notes of caramel, raisins and rye toast. The hops have citrus and piny notes along with some spice. The Treblehook is full-bodied with a slight syrupy mouthfeel and some residual creamy carbonation. The finish is fairly long and well balanced between malt and citrusy hops.

I tasted the Treblehook at just about the 2 year mark post-bottling and the aging has served it well. The beer is very smooth at this point. Flavor is well balanced between malt and hops. Although it may be a touch too sweet, signs point to it continuing to age well. I'm looking forward to checking back on this vintage in another year or so.

FYI - I have recently spotted some bottles still floating around from this bottling date in my area, so keep your eyes open. It's nice to snag a barleywine that already has enough age in the bottle where it is starting to hit its prime.

Red Hook Rope Swing Summer Pilsner

Today on Beer! - when good Pilsners go bad:

Brewery: Red Hook Ale Brewery

Location: Portsmouth, NH

Style: Pilsner

Brewery Website

Rating: C

Up for tasting today is the Rope Swing Summer Pilsner from Red Hook. The beer pours up a deep golden color with some haze and sediment, topped with a foamy white head. The nose has some rather shocking aromas of butter and yeastiness similar to a witbier.

The bizarreness continues on the palate. There is a bit of tartness, some mild butteriness, and a yeast note reminiscent of a Belgian white or abbey ale. Bitter hops build with time. There are some mineral notes here, as well as dry lager malt way in the background. The Rope Swing is light-medium bodied, with a dry mouthfeel. The finish has lingering yeast with dry malt and hops notes.

I can't help but wonder if something went wrong with the Rope Swing. The butter and yeasty notes are jarringly out of place in a pilsner. This really seems more like an abbey ale in flavor. The sediment really leads me to believe that this beer was contaminated somewhere along the line. Hopefully this only affected a small portion of the batch, as this is not the quality I expect from Red Hook.