Name – Tocobaga Red Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Red Ale

It’s been awhile since I reviewed a beer.  In actuality this is exactly what I want.  I am going to start cutting back on the amount of reviews and focus more on South Florida beer news and events.  Don’t worry you will still get reviews here and there like this one but probably only one a week.

Last week I was sick for a bit and went a good number of days without a beer.  No shakes, no cravings.  That’s always good.  But before that I occurred I was able to have today’s beer, Tocobaga from Cigar City.

I first had this beer awhile back at a Cigar City tap takeover and believed I fell in love at that time.  Red ales I think are a highly under appreciated style.  Not many breweries make them but the ones that do always seem to do a good job.  This was draft only until a few months ago when CCB released it in 750 bottles.  But news broke last week that they would be going to 12 oz bottles as well as 12 oz cans.  I will give you a minute to jump for joy, go ahead.

The hazy reddish orange brew sits nicely in my Cigar City snifter with a nice sized white head on top.  It slowly disappears into the liquid and leaves a slight bit of lacing around the glass.

The nose bursts with citrus like hops.  A lot of grapefruit and orange in there.  Quite a moderate amount of malts in the nose as well.

Not much different in the taste.  The hops come at you first.  They are slightly earthy along with the citrus notes.  I’d say there is even some tropical fruit tastes in there as well.  This has become common in their hoppy beers.  A caramel malt backing is present and gives some balance to things.  But the hops are first and foremost.

This beer would go very well with a nice cut of steak.  Really I would say most flavorful meats would fit quite nicely with it’s robust flavor.

This is everything I remember about the beer upon my first time having it on tap.  Lots of big hops in there with enough malts to not let it slide overboard.  And the news of it coming to smaller bottles as well as cans is just music to my ears.  It’s going to make this beer a go to some point down the road.

Grade – A-