Casco Bay Brewing Company - Riptide Red Ale

Riptide presents an attractive reddish-amber color capped by a sizeable, fluffy head from an aggressive pour. On the nose, this Irish-style red ale offers up notes of warm caramel, some toasty breadcrust, some graham cracker and a bit of butterscotch. There’s a somewhat marzenbier-like impression, and the hops are subdued but come through a bit grassy and mildly citric. As it hits your palate, expect a creamy, smooth mouthfeel as the malts offer up toasty, caramelly, and mildly nutty notes, with a touch of chocolate in the finish. Hops provide a touch of mild citrus and add just enough bitterness to keep the malt backbone in balance. Brewed using a top-fermenting ale yeast, but conditioned for an extended period of time at cold temperatures (like a lager), Riptide is very clean and crisp like a lager, with the complexity and robustness of an ale. Certainly among the very best American examples of the Irish red ale style, it’s also very sessionable at under 5% ABV. Riptide makes a good partner for orange chicken over fried rice, or just enjoy it with a snack of green grapes. Cheers!

Founders Bob Wade and Mike Lacharite opened the Casco Bay Brewing Company in the spring of 1994, originally brewing beers under the Katahdin name. Now here comes an inspirational part of the story: Bryan Smith started with the company less than a year later as a part-time bottler, but eventually went on to become owner, president, and brewmaster. We’re not making this up! Bryan started as a bottler in January of 1995, and by May he had become a brewer. After leaving to study the chemistry and microbiology of brewing (as well as brewery management) at the American Brewers Guild in California at UC Davis, Bryan returned to Maine in January of 1998 and, along with two other partners, bought out Mike Lacharite’s half of the business. Bryan took over all brewing operations, and it was later that year that they introduced Casco Bay Pilsner, the first of their beers to bear the Casco Bay name. In 1999, the Katahdin line was dropped in favor of their developing Casco Bay brand. The Katahdin Red Ale was reworked and turned into Casco Bay’s Riptide Red, which went on to win Gold at the 2000 World Beer Cup. In 2002, Bob Wade sold his half of the business to Bryan and his partners who went on to expand the brewery and grow the business further. In 2008, fellow Portland brewer Shipyard Brewing Company, owned by Maine native Fred Forsley and famed English Master Brewer Alan Pugsley (considered by many to be the "Johnny Appleseed of Brewing" due to his involvement in the founding and growth of numerous American microbreweries and his central position in this country’s craft brewing revolution), took over the Casco Bay line and continues to grow the regional brand throughout New England.