Sometimes inspiration can strike at the oddest hours. With the crummy weather coming in, E-Rock and I (Stoutmeister) decided to postpone our planned Taos Trek II that we had set for this past Saturday. Franz Solo actually had a Saturday off, and despite the Lobos going kaplooey, he wanted to watch basketball and drink beer. Then I went back and reread E-Rock’s The Week Ahead in Beer from last Monday and saw about all the Irish Reds being on tap around town. And thus, on Friday night around 9 p.m., we suddenly decided on a mini-beer challenge.

Yes, we’ve been talking about doing mini-challenges for a while, pitting a handful of similar beers against each other. Our schedules, the brewing schedules, and everything else actually came together enough for us to finally do something to complement our annual stout challenge on Super Bowl Sunday. E-Rock and I grabbed our growlers, filled ’em up, and joined Franz Solo to compare four Irish Reds, while also watching my alma mater, Arizona, avenge the poor Lobos by hammering Harvard.

Now, there are more than four Irish Reds on tap in town, but until Sandia Chile Grill gets its license to sell growlers, we did not want to risk getting them in trouble. We hope that happens soon, because SCG makes some damn fine beers that deserve to be included in future beer battles. Before I finished typing this, E-Rock went over to SCG to work on the next edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. He, naturally, tried the SCG Irish red and said it compares very favorably to the big boys’ versions, drawing a lot of positive comparisons to Chama River’s ale.

Anyway, the four we selected were from Chama River, Il Vicino, La Cumbre, and Marble. IV’s is the only one we’ve had before, since it’s (arguably) their most popular and frequently-brewed seasonal. Since there were only three of us participating (Derek was in Socorro, Brandon was at work on a Saturday, and Shilling was, um, we have no idea, but we guessed he was studying hard, or possibly just sleeping through half the weekend), we did not make this event quite as formal. We poured our pints knowing what they were in advance, but we felt we could do away with any preconceived bias. If anything, the breweries just made us expect excellence.

The results? Well, honestly, we could have pretty much put them in any order and been satisfied. These four Irish Reds were all outstanding, so good work to all the breweries. But since we said we’d rank them, well, here we go. These are our actual rambling comments during the tasting session on Saturday.

On Chama River’s Irish red

Franz Solo: Crisp.

Stoutmeister: It’s a little subtle. Kind of a fruit (flavor). Almost a little cherry, kind of a berry taste.

Franz Solo: I get a little sort of crisp, citrus-y berry. Then it’s just smooth.

Stoutmeister: There’s nothing on the tip of your tongue. It sits mid-palate. You could definitely drink this all day on the porch. This is a slow, lazy day, beer.

Franz Solo: This is a good sign of what’s to come.

(We go off on a tangent about the Lobos; it happens)

Franz Solo: That one actually hits more back palate. There’s a bit more flavor there as well. At the start, there wasn’t much, except the mid-palate and the crispness and then in the end it started to warm up and get a little more flavored. But still, kind of under-flavored.

Stoutmeister: Yeah, I would say so. Again, it just takes like one of those beers Chama made to not overwhelm their food. Chama makes its beer with that in mind.

Franz Solo: It would go well with most of what they make.

E-Rock: If I was mowing the lawn, I would definitely take that over like a Budweiser or something.

Franz Solo: That’s a good way to put it, a yard-work kind of beer.

On Il Vicino’s Irish Red

Franz Solo: Very flowery (aroma). It smells sweet.

E-Rock: The aroma’s not as strong as Chama.

Stoutmeister: You’ve got to bury your nose in it to get it. But once you do it’s there. This one’s the gold standard because they brew it almost year-round.

Franz Solo: A lot more front mid-palate, instead of just mid-mid-palate. A lot more berry right off the bat.

Stoutmeister: It’s just consistent throughout.

Franz Solo: Yeah, no surprises. This is one to drink all day.

Stoutmeister: I guess you could, but it’s 6.5 percent (ABV). It’s surprising. You do not taste the alcohol in this beer.

Franz Solo: No, not at all.

E-Rock: I’m liking the Irish red challenge better than the stout challenge.

Franz Solo: Agreed.

Stoutmeister: That was a weird batch of stouts we had this year.

(This leads into another tangent, but we’ve covered this already, and it also involves how that night did not end well for poor Franz Solo.)

Franz Solo: Final notes on this, well, yeah, it’s exactly what I expect from an Irish red.

E-Rock: There wasn’t too big of a difference between the two, but yeah, definitely the fact it has a consistent flavor.

Franz Solo: Very balanced.

Stoutmeister: It was an incredibly smooth, it’s the definition of a smooth, smooth beer. You could (easily) chug this beer.

E-Rock: This is the one your mom likes, isn’t it?

Stoutmeister: Yes, this is my mother’s favorite beer in the world.

Franz Solo: We should play beer pong with this.

E-Rock: And the cool part is we could it anytime of year, pretty much. They brew it (year-round).

On La Cumbre’s Irish red lager

Franz Solo: Sweeter.

Stoutmeister: Different aroma, much more floral.

Franz Solo: Completely different taste.

Stoutmeister: It’s like simultaneously sweeter and more bitter. Wow. Still very smooth.

Franz Solo: Yeah, you just get that nice little bite and (makes a Homer Simpson-like sound).

Stoutmeister: So you say you’re from La Cumbre. Bitey!

E-Rock: It’s definitely not like Marble’s Red bitey.

Stoutmeister: Well, no, it’s not hoppy. These are all malty beers.

E-Rock: You can definitely taste the malt in there, too.

Stoutmeister: It’s weird, because it’s got like a simultaneous … it’s wet and dry. You pick up on both. It still has that super smoothness to it, but there’s a dry, especially on the back end.

Franz Solo: It’s like if Chinese hot and sour soup was a beer.

Stoutmeister: Kind of.

Franz Solo: Like that contrast in flavors.

E-Rock: It doesn’t finish any differently. Seeing as how it’s a lager, it does look a lot clearer, though it’s hard to tell in these glasses.

Franz Solo: This is a lager beer, this is what I want.

(And off we go on a tangent about how making lagers takes longer than ales. That leads into discussions about Golden Crown possibly opening a brewery; we’ll investigate this further.)

On Marble’s Irish red ale

Franz Solo: Kind of a not-quite-chocolate-y (flavor) but somewhat just … almost like coffee or butterscotch.

E-Rock: I’m wondering if they’ve got those caramel malts in there.

Stoutmeister: I bet you they do. I think that’s what I’m (tasting). It’s different. There’s a little variance between them.

Franz Solo: Yeah, they’re all very distinct. I think this was a good number to try.

Stoutmeister: We should try to these sort of things. When everybody has kind of thematically the same group of beers out at a time, we should compare and contrast, who really does have the best Irish red. The Belgians are coming out in April.

(E-Rock talks about his conversations with brewers; brace yourselves for a full-on Belgian invasion in the months to come)

Stoutmeister: I like this beer, I just don’t …

E-Rock: It’s kind of like Chama’s where it’s kind of got that fading (quality).

Stoutmeister: There’s no front.

Franz Solo: It’s all mid- and back (palate), but mostly mid.

Stoutmeister: Very smooth, of course.

Franz Solo: Though with this one I can taste a little bit more of the alcohol. Just a hair. It’s not overpowering by any means.

E-Rock: It’s kind of interesting, it’s just like all four of them are pretty similar, there’s just like little things here and there.

On the overall rankings of these four excellent beers

Stoutmeister: We always joke about the fact that “we loved them all, but we have to rank them.” In this case I really do like all of them.

Franz Solo: There’s not one there that I wouldn’t drink again.

E-Rock: If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Il Vicino because it’s the most balanced, but the others were really close, too. And I really like La Cumbre’s.

Stoutmeister: La Cumbre’s was the most different, but they were all just good. All tasty.

E-Rock: Which one would you pour a pint of? If you only had one pint.

Stoutmeister: If I only had one pint? Probably still Il Vicino but it’s just hard. Honestly, this not really a one-two-three-four, it’s 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D. This is incredibly frustrating. It’s just kudos to all of them. I guess if I absolutely, positively had to rank them, I would probably put Il Vicino one, La Cumbre two, I’d put Chama three and Marble four. But that’s just me right now off the top of my head.

E-Rock: I’d probably do the same, except I’d put Marble and Chama tied just because I don’t know which one I’d pick.

Franz Solo: I have just about the same ranking. Vicino was my favorite overall. Marble and Chama, the ones that are slightly different from what I expect from an Irish red, but deciding between them …

E-Rock: If I took a pint I’d probably take La Cumbre just because it’s probably a little bit more interesting taste. I think that little touch of hops makes it different.

Franz Solo: If I was drinking something all day I would drink Il Vicino. But the rest, if I’m going to have a pint somewhere, that’s (La Cumbre) where I’d probably go.

Stoutmeister: It’s just impressive. What I think is the most impressive thing is they’re each a little different.

Franz Solo: They’re each completely distinct from one another.

Stoutmeister: But you still have the characteristics you’d expect from an Irish red with each of them, which is just nice.

* * *

So to sum it up, here are the Brew Crew’s Irish red rankings:

1. Il Vicino

2. La Cumbre

3. (tie) Chama River and Marble

All four of these beers, plus Sandia Chile Grill’s version (which you can drink in-house only, but that’s OK, because it’s always worth the trip), are outstanding. You do not have to celebrate your Irish heritage, or even pretend you’re Irish, just on St. Patrick’s Day alone. Head out to support your local breweries this week — while New Mexico can’t decide if it’s winter or spring — and enjoy some wonderful Irish red ales (and a lager)!

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister