Thunder Canyon Rye Heat

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

Sampled on 4/18/2009 at the brewpub from a 4oz sample. This ale pours a medium orange gold color. Perhaps a little hazy. The aroma is caramel and rye, some floral hops. A medium bodied ale. The malts are caramel and sweet. Hops are floral and somewhat grapefruity. There is a lot of rye character in this beer. Nicely balance. Very active carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter with some rye spiciness.

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

Described by the waitress as a Rye Lager that is both spicy and tart, sounds interesting or at least weird.

The beer arrives with a fairly hazy (though you can see through parts of it) amber color that has a reddish tint to it. The head is barely there and forms a ring of foam that hugs the sides of the glass and is tan colored. The aroma is quite grain focused; it is a touch spicy, with a wheat cracker aroma, a touch of muddled grain and a big (in fact the most prominent note by far), whole grain bread crust note that has been lightly browned.

The beer has a prickly carbonation to it and a medium body that has a fair amount of fullness to it. The beer definitely sticks to the palate with a rye induced viscosity, but the ample carbonation helps to cut this a bit. Solid whole grain flavors remind me more of whole-grain crackers than bread, but there is a touch of a browned bread crust flavor. There is actually a light sourness to this beer that is noticeable up front, it is definitely surprising, but somewhat subtle. This tartness helps the beer to come off as pretty dry despite the viscous fullness. The carbonation is retained pretty well because of the viscosity too.

This beer is dominated by the characteristics of rye. There is very little to no hop presence (which is probably the point). As it warms up the spiciness of the rye softens up just a bit and the mouthfeel becomes fuller as the carbonation slowly dissipates. It seems to pick up a touch of sweetness as well, but still remains quite dry for a beer of this thickness. Definitely interesting.