Though lacking true fruited-hopped red ale essence, barley-roasted chocolate easement provides minor credibility for Irish-styled brew. While imbibing, reddish brown hue seems richer than expectant flavor. And that’s a shame. Needs thicker yeast sinew and denser malt extract. Brewery defunct: 2002.
All posts by John Fortunato
KATAHDIN PALE ALE
Caramel malt-enriched ale with pure spring water lightening fragile spiced hops, bleached mocha, and dried fruit. Soft yeast texture brightens overall mood. Brewery defunct: 2002.
KASTEEL ROUGE
Enviously consummate kriek-styled ale brings exquisite cherry theme to forefront of pinkish-ruby fruited dessert beer. Loud lambic-framboise souring, bittersweet Jolly Rancher tartness, and cherry juice tang pick up vinous champagne fizz. Faraway strawberry tinge wavers. Compares favorably to world class New Glarus Belgian Red.
KASTEEL BRUIN
Chewy 11% alcohol-soaked dark ale layers honeyed vanilla creaminess atop bittersweet raisin-prune-fig cluster, candied apple stickiness, and bruised banana recess. Peppery-hopped cinnamon-clove spicing embeds ancillary brandy-soaked cherry ethers, earthen grape tannins, and vinous bourbon-port warmth.
KASTEEL BIERE DU CHATEAU BELGIAN ALE
Intricate fruit-spiced medium-bodied tripel brings sunny tropicalia to creamy vanilla midst. Up-front banana-peach-pear fruiting receives juicy mango-papaya-kiwi twist over honey roasted malting. But musty alcohol solvency and cellared yeast funk gunk up its sweet spot.
KARTHUIZER IPSO FACTO ABBEY ALE
Traditional top fermented bottle conditioned Dutch abbey with strong barleywine essence, ripe prune overtones, and loud liquor-stained fortitude (11.2% by volume). Very unusual for Dutch brew: caramelized instead of sour malted like Heineken or Grolsch beers. Compares favorably with less fruity Belgians.
(BOSTEELS) KARMELIET TRIPEL
Rather soft for daintily gold-hazed dessert-like tripel, but its alcohol sneaks up on you. Short-lived white-peppered citric effervescence gives way to protruding candi-sugared yeast sweetness contrasting mildly bitter herbal hop spread to creamy vanilla-spiced finish. Coriander, lemon peel, and banana illusions crystallize alongside light green grape tartness.
KARL STRAUSS RED TROLLEY ALE
Amber-hazed medium-bodied mediocrity’s initial astringency lifts for sweet barley-roasted simplicity and faint dry-fruited hopping. But distant honey-toasted caramel panache too indistinguishable for red ale significance.
KARL STRAUSS AMBER LAGER
Muted roasted oats match bittersweet toasted barley foundation and tamped down hop scourge of pale-bodied Bavarian-styled lager. Though mild, mainstream, and predictable, its off-dry grain subtleties are its charm.
(KARLSBERG) RHINEBECKER EXTRA LOW CARBOHYDRATE LAGER
White bread nose, fizzy hop spritz, and warming Scotch malt mouthfeel pervade trendy low-carb lightweight, retaining decent body to salt watered bottom.
(KARLSBERG) HELLER HOCH PILS
Astringent pale-bodied straw-hazed golden pilsener aligns freshly harvested wheat chaff to rich barley strand, but acrid maize mouthfeel redolent of tinny American relics Schlitz and Rheingold – only better hopped and more detailed. Mild buttery bitterness turns soapy by dank sour malt finish.
(KARLSBERG) BEETHOVEN NON-ALCOHOLIC
Fluffy white-headed pale-bodied non-alcohol brew offers sweet rye permanence, dank doughy dalliance, and honeyed wheat surge. Meager hop bitterness, flat carbonation, and soapy finish stultify lightweight appeal as silky lace coats glass.