Beer Profile: Shiner’s Ruby Redbird

Courtesy beerstreetjournal.com

Profiled by Ken Carman for professorgoodales

Red grapefruit and ginger.
Red grapefruit nose in bottle. Same in the glass plus a hint of ginger and, behind that pale malt.

Great clarity, Urine color. Head slight: pinpoint bubbler and fades fast and leaves no remnants.

Mouthfeel: low carbonation and a bit “biting”” carbonic, for what there is. Low body.

Taste: grapefruit and pale malt, ginger. Citrusy: grapefruit red. Hint of a fruity tang.
This is a very clean, and very simplistic, quaff. If you’re looking for a very light, uncomplicated, “so what” summer brew: almost watery, have at it. I understand the concept of a simple summer beer. But if you care little for any complexity, just drink q Bud or Miller. But there is nothing more than pale malt, red grapefruit sense and just a hint of ginger. For what it is, pleasant, but needs more to be a 4 with complexity.

I understand the concept of a simple summer quaff some call lawnmower. But should the brewers go out of their way to lack complexity? An emphatic “no,” IMO. And that’s my sense here. So 3.

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “prefecto.”