Red Brick Brewing Company 16th Anniversary (365 Day 230)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer, Beer on Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Red Brick 16th Anniversary

Rich and I had a chance to visit the early on stages of New Chicago Brewing Company. More to come on this topic but I want to thank Samuel and Jesse for having us out and showing us around. Cool place. I can’t wait to have my first beer from the brewery.

American craft beer number 230 is 16th Anniversary by Red Brick Brewing Company is categorized as an American Brown Ale. Since it logs in at 11% ABV it is easy to say it is imperial.

16th Anniversary comes on with bourbon, oak, and vanilla that are quite prevalent and seem to dominate the base beer. Molasses and roasted malt are the only other characteristics that I could get on the nose or mouth. The combination of the bourbon, oak, and vanilla are quite nice but the molasses is really strong and sweet. I think it distracted the beer from me. I also would have like to see a few more brown ale notes come through as I almost thought he beer was more like a porter.

Sounding a little to critical today. I rated the beer well above average so I liked it and would have it again. Enjoy!

Aroma: 9 (25%), Taste: 8 (25%), Look: 9 (15%), Drinkability: 7 (35%), Overall: 8.1

Useless Fact: Volleyball was invented in a Holyoke, Massachusetts, YMCA in 1895. Its inventor was William George Morgan. The game was first called “mintonette” and was played by hitting a basketball over a rope.