Red Hook - Copper Hook Spring Ale
April 14, 2006 – 2:01 amA couple weeks ago I was at Pavilions and decided to try something out of the ordinary (in other words, something other than Shiner). Normally I would have gone for Rogue Dead Guy, but they were out of that. I looked around and saw an interesting beer: Red Hook Copper Hook Spring Ale. I had seen Red Hook before but I had never actually tried it. I’ve had some spring and summer ales before and seemed to enjoy the style, so I decided to give Copper Hook a try.
When poured in a glass, the beer is indeed somewhat copperish in color, hence the name. I tend to pour down the side of a tilted glass to retain carbonation, so I’m not sure about what sort of head it has, but it has none at all when poured carefully. This is interesting, because the beer is heavily carbonated, almost distractingly so. The aroma is pleasant but not strong and does not reveal much about the beer. Spring and Summer ales seem to be more full-bodied and tend to have a bit more fruit/citrus flavor than your standard brew. Copper Hook doesn’t follow this pattern (despite what Red Hook says on the website). There is certainly a faint fruit flavor, a hint of citrus, but the beer also has a distinct bitterness to it, although that isn’t strong either. These two disparate flavors actually blend well to make an interesting beer, rather than conficting. There doesn’t seem to be much of an aftertaste and the beer goes down rather smoothly.
I definitely enjoyed this beer (I’m actually still enjoying the last few bottles that I have). While not spectacular, it is definitely a good beer. I will be sure to look for it in the future, and I might just get a couple more six-packs before it leaves the shelves this month. That’s right, this is truly a seasonal beer and is only available between January and April.
As a sidenote, after liking Copper Hook, I decided to give Red Hook a try at the KROQ Beer Fesival. I found regular Red Hook to be spectacularly disappointing. It was simply bad and I will avoid regular Red Hook in the future. I might try some of Red Hook’s other specialty beers. Maybe Red Hook is a fluke and the rest are good, maybe Copper Hook is a fluke and the rest suck. I’ll have to do some experimenting to find out.
Any comments, Jeff, Greg, Ger?
2 Responses to “Red Hook - Copper Hook Spring Ale”
I’d say give regular red hook another try, I’ve learned not to judge brews based on a first taste because i’ve got bad bottles before (of red hook and other brewers). YMMV but regular red hook is one of my favs. Coppper was good but tastes like it’s missing something to me. Maybe I’m just used to heavier brews which it why I still slightly prefer regular red hook.
Most stores will let you mix flavors between a six pack as long as they’re the same brewer/price. I love doing this and reccomend it!
By TS on Jan 25, 2008