Full Sail Nugget Special Red Ale

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Full Sail is one of those brewers who are just so hard to nail down. Sometimes their brews aren't all that good, other times they are a total suprise. This beer kinda falls there in the middle. Even though it's in the middle, it was still enjoyable.

The beer pours out a medium copper/reddish color with a nice sized white foam head. Aroma was spicy/herbal apple cider, caramel, with a touch of breadyness. Flavors had notes of some sweet fruits, piney hops, grains, alcohol and herbs. Easy to drink a pint or two. Not sure how much easier a 3rd pint would go down.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Pours with a brownish-red body topped by a thick, off-white head with lots of lacing. It’s slightly sweet and fruity wtih a nice maltiness and an underlying grapefruity hop note Medium bodied, slightly tingly on the tongue and a touch dry.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A dark amber appearance. The aroma consists of toffee, caramel, and faint citrus showing. The flavor is rather malty with some toffee. A little bit of citrus, lemons and oranges, are in there as well. The finish is slightly sour. Overall it was ok.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Pours with a fat-two-finger thick, amber tinged, tan colored head that sits atop a brilliantly clear, concentrated red beer. The aroma is enticingly hoppy from a distance with notes of herbal & citrus like hop notes. Aromas of grapefruit, berries, tangerine, pine, and a solid, spicy / herbal backdrop are all quite noticeable. A touch of malt peeks through the hop notes, contributing a touch of sweet aromatics and some biscuit-like malt notes. What the malt does accentuate is the fruit, mostly berry like notes.

Fairly dry up front (I have a feeling that is the steak I had for dinner though), it does pick up a light, malty sweetness towards the middle. A slight, bitter, hop bite finishes this beer off and lingers on for a bit in the finish. Aggressively hoppy throughout, this beer has a pronounced herbal hop character that is a mix of pine, green-hay and perhaps a touch of menthol. A backdrop of citrus flavors help to round things out (mostly grapefruit notes) as does some malt character that leans towards caramelized malt sugars, biscuit-malt and some soda cracker notes towards the finish. This has a certain heft to it that allows it to stick just a bit to the mouth; this is still fairly easy drinking though.

Not a bad beer, seems to be a slightly bigger version of Full Sail Amber, or at least of that heritage. It could almost use a bit more malt character to stand up to the sharp hop notes in the finish (a sort of astringent, almost menthol like note). This is not bad, but for some reason it just can't hold my interest for long.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Poured an amber color with good head. Aroma was citrus and floral some caramel. Flavor was much the same but something was off, and got worse as it warmed. Mouthfeel was a little thin.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Poured a deep red-amber color, nice frothy off-white but near white head. The aroma was fruity upon opening, caramel, toffee, citrus and floral hops. Flavor is a slightly off caramel and some toffee, tea bags (not really in a good way, either), diacetyl overflow w/ warmer temperatures, and floral and citrus hops. Finishes bitter, somewhat watery in flavor, some sort of a noble hop, firm bitterness in the end with no strong flavors signifying the hop? The mouthfeel is moderate to full for the style, a little more malty than I'd expected. Not a winner for me, especially as a "special" beer which used an extra 1.5% abv (6.5% total). Should certainly have been better, heck, I feel like I over-rated this sucker.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Deep amber color with smallish head, little to no lace. Odd sweet malty flavor. Same oddness in the flavor, don't know what it is. Sweet and bitter, pretty good, actually. Very unique brew...worth having. Nice mouthfeel.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

This amber ale pours a deep copper color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is malty, hoppy and a touch bitter. A medium bodied Amber. Malts are caramel and toffee, not too sweet. Hops are grapefruity and piney. Probably more of an imperial red than an amber, the malts aren’t as sweet and the hops are fairly aggressive for an amber. It seems to fall more between an amber and an American Strong Ale. Kind of nice really. Good balance. Decent carbonation, Nice step up from an amber. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.