Miasmatic Review

Kilgubbin Red Ale

May the luck of the Irish be upon ya! Since it is March and St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in March, all the beers I review this month are going to be Irish. Well okay, some are going to be Irish influenced or as I like to call them, “I can’t believe it’s supposed to be Irish.” If there is one thing the Irish can do right, that’s make some damn good beer. If there is something American Beer companies can do… is pass of a piss poor imitation of Irish Beer as being “Irish”. I’m not saying these aren’t good beers, just that they really aren’t Irish. That brings us to this week’s Faux Irish beer, Kilgubbin Red Ale by Goose Island Brewery in Chicago, IL.

They really want you to believe this is an Irish inspired beer. The label has all kinds of Celtic knot work all over it. It even has the name of the beer on a red banner in the “old Irish” script right over three shamrocks. If they really wanted to do it right, they would have had a pint-sized bottle instead of your standard 12 oz brown bottle. Any beer drinker worth their hops knows that the Irish drink by the bloody pint.

Besides being 4 oz short when poured into a pint glass, there is a dark brownish red color to the beer. It’s darker in color, but light still passes through. There is no haziness to it at all. There is a nice quarter inch white head that slowly fades into a film on top of the beer. There is virtually no lacing on the side of the glass.

There is a good earthy scent of roasted malts, both of the barley and chocolate variety. The floral scent of hops can be detected as well as a nice citric accent. There is a nice malty sweetness with a burnt hop bitter finish to the beer. There is a touch of smokiness to it that enhances the flavor. To be honest, the flavor is a little on the week side. There is a mild aftertaste that isn’t pleasant, but does make you want to drink more.

This is a thin beer, it’s almost watery. It wants to have a creamy texture to it, but the body of the beer is just too thin. It is very easy to drink.

As faux Irish beers go, this is not bad. I’ve had much better, but I wouldn’t be upset if someone gave me a six-pack of this. I’m going to give it a 4.5 out of 10.