American Red Ale, also called American Amber Ale, is a richly flavored, sweet, hoppy beer popular on the west coast of the United States, and especially in the Pacific Northwest. It usually features a reddish or orange color and a sweet malt flavor from the use of caramel malts, and a strong hop character often including grassy notes from dry hopping.
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History of American Red Ale
American Amber Ale has its origin in the earliest days of the American craft beer "revolution". Brewers wanted to brew and market beers resembling the English styles Bitter and Pale Ale. Some breweries did just that, bottling 'Best Bitter' and 'ESB'. Others, faced with a dearth of traditional English ingredients, had to use American ingredients.
David Brockington, in the November/December 1995 issue of 'Brewing Techniques' magazine, quoted Ed Tringali - former brewer at Berkeley, CA's Triple Rock and Seattle's Big Time breweries, as considering the oringinal American Amber Ale (hereafter AAA) a "brewpub beer". In the beginning of the craft beer revolution, brewpubs wanted a simple lineup of "gold, red and black" beers from their taps. Brewers like Tringali decided that amber to copper-colored beers like English Pale Ales and Special Bitters were the answer to the "red" portion of the color scheme.
At the same time, brewery and brewpub owners were leery of marketing beers with the word "bitter" in the name; justifiably so, in an age with TV commercials deriding 'bitter beer face' showing in prime time every evening. Thus, the breweries marketed their red beers as "amber".
There was also a conscious effort to avoid color-based confusion in the consumer. Calling an amber beer 'pale ale' in an era when the consumer expects the word 'pale' to mean 'straw' - like mass-market lager beers - would cause problems. It was easier to market a classic English Pale Ale under the name Amber Ale to differentiate it. Here, as in many facets of craft brewing, California brewers led the trend.
The California brewery most often attributed with typifying AAA is Mendocino Brewing Company, founded in 1983, and their Red Tail Ale - arguably the first commercially successful AAA. The late, great Michael Jackson called Red Tail Ale "an American classic". Brewer Don Barkley crafted the beer specifically to be a stronger, more flavorful, richly colored, full-bodied amber beer.
Red Tail was and is a well-balanced ale with a solid malty backbone, a noticeable crystal-malt body, and a perceptible hoppiness. From that beginning, countless other breweries have brewed their interpretations of the style, weighted both to the malty side as well as the balanced and hoppy.
Regardless of balance, all AAAs are 100% malt beers, and possess a distinct crystal malt note. This is the crucial difference between AAA and American Pale Ale, such as the benchmark Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. This can be a subtle difference, but it is crucial; the key to AAA vs. APA is AAA's easily-ascertained crystal-malt contribution. As Brockington noted in his article:
Add some 80L crystal to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and you not only have a different beer, but a different style of beer.
R P Davis 15:48, 13 September 2008 (CDT)
Types of American Red Ale
West Coast versions tend to have more intense hop character and be more heavily tilted towards hop flavors than East Coast versions, which are often more balanced. In addition to the standard Red Ale, some American brewers are brewing "imperial" or "double" versions. This Imperial Red Ale style is often indistinguishable from an American IPA except that it might feature a sweeter malt character than the typical IPA.
Brewing American Red Ale
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Competition Styles
Both the BJCP and the GABF recognize American Red Ale as a style, both referring to it as "Amber Ale". The GABF also recognizes an Imperial version.
BJCP Style Guidelines
American Amber Ale
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GABF Style Listings
American Style Amber/Red Ale
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American amber/red ales range from light copper to light brown in color. They are characterized by American variety hops used to produce high hop bitterness, flavor, and medium to high aroma. Amber ales have medium-high to high maltiness with medium to low caramel character. They should have medium to medium-high body. The style may have low levels of fruity ester flavor and aroma. Diacetyl can be either absent or barely perceived at very low levels. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. Slight yeast haze is acceptable for bottle conditioned products. |
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Imperial or Double Red Ale
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Imperial or double red ales have intense hop bitterness, flavor and aroma. Alcohol content is also very high and of notable character. They range from deep amber to dark copper in color. The style may use any variety of hops. Though the hop character is intense it’s balanced with complex alcohol flavors, moderate to high fruity esters and medium to high caramel malt character. Imperial or Double Red Ales have a full body. Diacetyl should not be perceived. |
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