Grand Teton Brewing Company - XX Au Naturale Organic Double Red Ale

We have featured a couple of beers from the Grand Teton Cellar Reserve series in the Rare Beer Club during the last two years, always to very positive reactions from our membership - and so we are very pleased to bring another one of their higher alcohol, bottle-conditioned, cellar-worthy brews to you this month.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Grand Teton Brewing Company, the brewers chose four of their favorite beers for release as part of their Cellar Reserve series in 2008. XX Au Naturale Organic Double Red Ale is the third release of this year's lineup.

Au Naturale Organic Blonde became the newest member of Grand Teton’s mainstay beers when it was first brewed in 2006. Crafted with organic German malt and hops, it has a clean, smooth character reminiscent of the best European lagers. For the 20th anniversary celebration, they’ve traded in the blonde for a redhead while keeping their German roots. Still brewed with all-German organic malt and hops, the XX Au Naturale is bigger, maltier, and of course redder, than the original.

The reddish Vienna malts that give this ale its color provide a spicy sweetness and some caramel notes that perfectly complement roast or grilled chicken, pizza, or pasta. It would make an attractive and appropriate beer for your holiday table if served in a nice stem glass, even a red wine glass. This is a full-bodied red with great texture in the mouth, though not overly agressive in either sweet malt or hop bitterness; it's well-balanced, to be sure, and in its smoothness it's difficult to tell that it is 7.5% alcohol by volume.