Friday Beer Review - Roots Island Red

Brewery Name and Location: Roots Organic Brewing Company - Portland, OR
Name of Brew: Island Red
Style of Brew: Amber Ale
ABV: 5.6%

I had picked up a 22 oz. bottle of the Roots Organic Island Red a while back and hadn’t really found an opportunity to enjoy the beer. This past Saturday I thought would be a good time, sitting in front of the TV for the whole afternoon watching basketball and enjoying some beer. Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way I had hoped with my brackets, but I tried to not let that effect my opinion of the Island Red as I drowned my sorrows.

Honestly, I don’t know what to expect anymore with “organic” products. I thought for some reason the Island Red might have something on its amber ale competition and the “organic”, displayed proudly on the bottle, is what drew me to purchase. The Island Red definitely is much darker than some previous ambers that I’ve tried, of course, with the darker color comes a much stronger taste - especially that of the barely and malt. Almost to a fault…damn you organics! Here’s the description from the web site:

We call this a RED stout. Very full bodied complex ale brewed with a good amount of oats and barley, which lend to the nice bread and malt flavors and help give this RED a very rich & creamy head.

“Red stout” sounds about right, as this is probably one of the strongest amber ales I’ve tried…and being that I’m not the biggest fans of stouts, it was doomed from the get go (and the basketball games weren’t helping). Roots Orangic Brewing Company has a number of other beers and their brewery looks pretty cool, definitely noted for my next trip to Portland. If you enjoy stouts, you should consider broadering your horizons and trying out the Island Red.