Founders Brewing Company Red's Rye PA

Founders Brewing Company is a Michigan based brewery producing high quality craft beers that seem to have attracted a decent following among those who love beer.  I have had the Centennial IPA before, and loved it, but Red's Rye PA is a really fantastic brew, definitely a great option if you're looking to have a couple good drinks, whether with dinner or just hanging out and having a few with friends.

Red Rye PA and Polygamy Porter Glass

Sold in brown 12oz bottles with a light cream colored label with a kind of creepy face framed by red hair and beard with "Red's Rye PA" above and "~Ale~" below in large script, with the Founders logo up top.  Poured into a pint glass (my favorite, from Oscar's Cafe at Zion National Park, a Wasatch Brew Pub and Brewery Polygamy Porter glass, proclaiming "Why Just have One!"), the beer is a deep amber, a really beautiful, unusual color for a beer, but it does lack head, and what there was when poured dissipates quickly into a light froth around the edges.  The beer smells hoppy and citrusy, really bright and fresh smelling despite it being bottled (on 07/10/12 according to the mark on the label) rather than on draft, and the flavor backed that up.  It's not as hoppy as I'd expect from an IPA modeled beer like this, and it doesn't live up to Founders' website's claim that it has "serious hop bitterness," but it's quite pleasant, with tons of flavor, including one that I couldn't identify until I checked the website, which would be a grapefruit like flavor they say comes from the use of Amarillo dry hop.  After you finish, the beer just sort of rests on your palate, with no added bitterness developing; it really just mellows until there is nothing left.  The mouth feel is similar to that of a standard IPA, but a little bit creamier.  At 6.6% ABV, this is not the beer to drink if you have an aversion to higher alcohol beers, but it doesn't really taste like it's more than a standard ABV brew.  I'm a huge fan, and I would highly recommend it.

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