Deschutes Brewery's Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale

Jack it up and pack it up snowbunnies!

Remember four score and seven years ago I talked about how it was weird we didn't ever review Descutes beers and continued to NOT review then. Well, that one is on me. I don't have a good excuse other than, I just am lazy. These guys continue to brew plenty of good beers, even after Larry Sidor left them. I actually secretly had this as a point of contention. however, is it like me to hold a grudge. Yes, but that's borderline irrelevant.

Me? Huge fan of Cinder Cone. I remember I had it for the first time and crapped a load in a good way. This, Red Chair, was supposed to be their replacement to it. Cinder Cone was superior in my opinion and even if they modeled a better replacement for it, I still always tell people that this is their replacement, which, may not be accurate anymore, but since when has this site been accurate?

You got your cascade, munich, craphills (carapils), pilsner, and pale malts twisted with a cascade and centennial hop or two, which it with some water and yeast and blammo, Red Chair. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. This stuff yields a 6.2% ABV and a 60 IBU. Even a baby could taste the pale ale bitter, floral tastes from the cascade hops. Well, let's just summarize this as follows: You know a regular pale ale? Well, picture that with a touch more bitters and a more full bodies taste. I mean you put enough malts in anything and it'll toss your tastebuds for a ride. Then your tastebuds will be YOUR buds. Then it's "on".

It has a bittersweet, floral scent and leaves a solid oak tree effect on your glass. More carbonated than your typical pale ale, the full bodied flavor masks the carbonation for a solid, fullbodied taste.

In short, I'd love to shoot this down as an inferior replacement to Cinder Cone, and it is! However, that being said, still a damn fine beer. You can find this sucker at your local party store in the Winter and early Spring and, shit, regardless of what they say, I find this whenever I goddang want.

I paid about $10 for a sixer of this which is pretty average. If you roll up with this and a Philly blunt to a John Mayer concert, by default you will be the coolest cat in the henhouse. Just don't tell anyone you went to a John Mayer concert. Is he still around? I hope not. What a toolshed!

Beer gets it's name from a ski lift. Not too entirely important but some BS fact for you and your frat buddies.

Oh, I forgot. So for the month of December we are adding a new category with will be irrelevant to the score for for the beer. We will suggest the best Patrick Swayze movie to drink this beer to. Me and my pal came up with that after one too many brunch brews.

Drinkability: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Curb Appeal: 5/10
Swayze Movie: "Christmas in Wonderland" feat. Chris Kattan

Overall: 6.5/10

Deschutes Brewery's Jubelale Winter Ale

This is a great brewery and quite frankly it's surprising this is the first brew review from them.

This brewery is located in Bend, Oregon right off the Deschutes River and is one of my favorite breweries. I have the utmost respect for ex-brewmaster Larry Sidor (now working at Crux Fermentation Project) and he helped to get a hell of a line-up at Deschutes. Their line-up are usually solid as hell and wicked cool.

This beer is darker than the heart of Saruman and just as cold. It's got a dark tan head on it so you know this stuff is gonna be full bodied. It's like saying "hey man, come and get it". Oh, you're gonna get it Buster Brown. And at 6.7% ABV gonna gonna really get it. The label is alright. It was designed by Avlis Leumas who painted a picture of the local owl celebrity. Yeah. I said local owl celebrity, dodo brain. You can buy his stupid crap online. Look it up if you want. I'm not gonna send ya there. Still a nice label. You can get a sixer for a 10-spot.

Okay. You can see Avlis Leuman stuff here.

The taste is a cool, bitter consistency with a mulchy spice with a hint of fruit. They use pale, crystal, roasted barley and carapils malts and nugget, cascade, willamette, styrian, tettnang, and east kent golding hops. Also known as "all the left over stuff mixed together". This shit yields 60 IBU's so if you think this shit isn't as bitter an ex-highschool girlfriend you dumped at the roller skating rink; you'd be wrong.

It gives off a sweet aroma and a heavier scent of fruit than the taste would suggest.

I don't typically like winter ales and this one is no different. These are great because they are strong, heavy and bitter. I suggest if you are trying to substitute a meal for a beer, this will do. It has a gravy-like aftertaste to help. So it has it's good points. This would be a good beer to warm you up at a bar as you snack on some peanuts. It's so bitter you don't really wanna slug a dozen of these down and wrestle your dad on Christmas morning in your underwear. I mean what are you gonna do? Wrestle best of 3? Until someone taps out? I mean just stick to getting it at a bar. Though it would be a nice Christmas memory. Pretty good for a winter ale but it's still a winter ale.

Drinkability: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 6.5/10