Bottle pour into nonic pint glass from Trader Joe's. Appearance is cloudy (fine white particulates) orange with decent sparkle, finger-width off-white foamy head with poor retention and light soapy lacing. Aroma is cardboard, musty, yeast. Taste is cardboard, leaves, muted fruit. Palate is light-to-medium bodied with thin texture, soft-to-average carbonation and dry finish as taste. Overall, there was no born-on or best-by date on this but I have to figure this was elderly. Little-to-no hop presence, uninteresting and not pleasant.

From Aug 2007

I got this one in a trade with Wasatch. Thanks, John!

This pours from 12oz bottle a near pitch black with a small head of foam. A few minutes in and all that's left is a few small islands in the middle and a ring around the glass. Lacing is minimal.

The smell is full of sweet malt to my nose.

The taste has a lot of caramel malt up front that starts off very sweet but that's offset quickly by some hop bitterness that cuts the level of sweetness pretty well. I also get some good chocolate notes along with some roasted malt and an earthy flavour also shows up. It finishes slightly bitter but at the very end, it comes off on the watery side. It has a good mouthfeel to it for the style and the carbonation is fairly brisk. Pretty good stout in my book.

From Dec 2006

Poured from 12oz bottle(room temp) a clear reddish gold with a large head of foam that shrank to a broken layer that remained mainly in the center of the glass.

The smell is on the weak side but I note some sweet malt.

The taste has sweet malt tones but I detect a graininess more than anything else. Further sips only enhance the taste of grain and it makes for a rather dull, imo, Lager that has a pretty decent colour for the style. This one is just *not* working favourably on my palate. Others may like it and that's a good thing but it's not working for me at all.

Bottom line: I'm not fond of this Red Lager at all. Try it and see what you think --- Beer merged from original tick of Red Tail Lager on 08 May 2015 at 18:17 - Score: 6. Original review text: Pretty standard American Amber.

Light copper coloured body with a smallish, two centimetre tall off-white head. Aroma of rather grassy and piney hops with a touch of malt and some noticeable sugars as well. Light to Medium-bodied; Grassy and more herbal hops show at first, but give way immediately to a sweet, cardboardie malt note with a touch of pungent bitterness and funky sweet notes more from fake sugars and caster sugar than anything else, with a decent enough balance. Aftertaste shows some grass, funk, cardboard, off-flavours and a hint of hop bitterness, still. Overall, a pretty uninspired beer with a touch of hop bitterness, some smoother malt notes, not much sweetness or complexity, but goes down quite easily - no real reason to go out of your way to find or try this one. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Trader Joe’s in [Old Town] Alexandria, Virginia on 18-June-2017 for US$1,34 with my two girls, drank while walking the streets in Alexandria on 18-June-2017, Father’s Day.