Can: Pours almost clear, red-brown, with a thick, light tan head. Caramel, toasty scent. Taste is fruity, caramel malt, a hint of what seems like strawberry... Tasty.....mild....good rich maltiness.

Pours a reddish brown appearance with a tan head. Caramel, dark chocolate, slightly spicy aroma. Cardboard, dull hops, light pine, caramel, burnt sugar flavor. Ehhh, ok.

Reviewed from notes.
The appearance had a deep dark amber / red color with a decent half finger white head (bar pour, so no points taken off) no lacing.
The smell was super malty, must have been a super large amount of caramels added to this bad boy.
The taste was mainly sweet through the malts, and a decent amount of bitter hops does end up balancing it in the flavor. slight caramel aftertaste with a dry finish.
On the palate, it sat about heavy than a lot of so-called sessionable Red ales I think I read that this was supposed to be a beer to go with food and I guess it could be to an extent, however, it doesn’t seem as sessionable to me.
Overall, I say its a good brew as an American Amber/Red Ale worthy of coming back to but to have with food, hmm... Barrio might want to tone down those malts a bit. I realize they’re trying to make a Mexican beer that would be malty enough to clear some Mexican heat in food, but something just feels a bit too heavy to have with food.

Poured up at AZ Strong Ale Fest 2014 where they told me this was an imperial red ale but it very well might be the Red Cat Amber so I’ll put the rating there. It pours with a nice clear deep copper body that has some golden hues and supporting a light tan head of foam. The aroma offers up some pine hops mixing with some malts and a touch of citrus. The taste comes across a little thin and drinkable with tasty hops that run from flavor hops right into a decent level of hop bitterness. I’m getting mostly grapefruit as well as a little bit of pine and then a mixture of sweet fruity esters along with some sweet crystal malts. Pretty nice all-in-all with just enough going on to make it interesting amid the light drinkability.

Poured up at Flanny’s Arizona on Tap Festival with a nice looking amber body that has a slight haze and copper edges and supports a thin tan head. The aroma offers up sweet malts, caramel, kind of bready, kind of doughy and then it ends with slivers of sweet smelling prune like fruity esters. The taste is similar with sweet malts and caramel candy that have a slight doughy edge to them. To midway those notes are further sweetened by some thin sweet prune and ripe cherry like fruity esters. Pretty nice.

Poured up at Flanny’s Arizona on Tap Festival with a nearly clear deep gold body that has a faint haze and supports an off white head. The aroma offers up bright hoppiness that lean heavily toward spicy dank earthy onion like hoppy goodness that is smelling oh so good right now. In the background is a very faint murmur of sugary maltiness and almost a saison like yeasty spice note. The taste is delicious. It has a little bit of juicy citrus hops flowing into spicy dank shallots like hoppiness that has a pleasing resiny edge to it. At the end there is a sliver of malty sort of fruity esteriness that’s faint but distracts a bit from the experience. Great IPA.

12oz can (labeled Barrio Blonde with an agreeable design to it) pours with a clear watery gold body and really no head at all. The modest aroma has sweet malts, faint grainy malts and a floral sort of vague spicy hoppiness. The nearly carbonation free taste has a mild degree spicy to floral hops, a sliver of lime and then sugary sweet maltiness.

Barrio’s NCAAL growler fill from Total Wine in Tempe. It pours with an amber to mahogany looking body that supports a nice full tan head of foam. The aroma offers up coffee beans and nuttiness as well as some roasted and earthy malts. The taste begins sugary sweet with malts and a bit of sweet fruity esters and then it quickly moves into roasted malts, roasted coffee, nuttiness and some pine like hops. Into the finish it seems to pick up a cinnamon not too. Decent enough American Strong Ale but it seems it lacks some flavor harmony.

Growler fill from Total Wine in Tempe. It pours out clear copper with a nice looking tan head of foam. The modest aroma has a bit of citrus and earthy lime peel notes as well as being a touch floral too. The taste is smooth to start with giving up malts and some citrus like hop flavor. To midway and into the finish a tepid level of grapefruit and lime like citrus hop bitterness is noticed. This is smooth and soft on the palate and not really all that IPA like and even short on bitterness for a Pale. Seems a bit more ESB. Hmm?