This is Bear Republic’s take on a Scottish Red Ale and it’s enormous.
Red Rocket Ale absolutely reeks of toffee, maple syrup, redwood resin and a whole bunch of bitter bramble leaves.
The flavour pretty much follows suit with a big bully of a malt that pounds at you and takes over your entire head with the most extraordinary maple syrup and thick rich gloopy toffee that leaves you dizzy as big handfuls of fresh herbs and All Spice start popping out.
The hops here are tongue creasingly dry and assertive.
They’re bitter and they’re sharp and they scour your mouth with grapefruit pith and a massive polished sideboard of woody pine resin.
There’s a brandy heat lurking in the background too, and along with a feint haze of dandelion and burdock, this becomes a very sticky beer to drink.
It’s super dry in the finish but it’s a sticky dryness and it’s a little bit mental and extremely fun and really rather brilliant.