WILK Friday BeerBuzz – 7 June 2013 Redhook Audible Ale w/Matt Licklider

It’s not often that we get to bring a guest on the WILK Friday BeerBuzz who literally brews from coast to coast.  It’s also cool to feature beers from a brewery that dates back over thirty years; and even better when they all come together under one brewery name.

Today we chose to Redhook Brewing, a brewery that first got it’s start in Woodinville, WA in 1981 and then expanded with an east coast location in Portsmouth NH in 1996.  I’ll admit Redhook Brewing has some very fond family memories for me as not only did I first experience a winter seasonal with Winterhook, but my late father-in-law was a huge fan of Longhammer IPA so I’ve enjoyed many a Redhook brew in my past and it was exciting to feature them today

Redhook Brewing makes some great beers, but their packaging and marketing deserve mention as well.  Redhook labels featured a flavor indicator scale that lets you quickly and visually determine the flavor characteristics of your beer before you buy it.  The labels also feature an irreverent tagline that differs from beer to beer that I really get a kick out of.  One favorite of mine is the Wisecracker Wit (with ginger in the beer) which carries the tagline, “Made with Ginger but still digs Maryann".  This irreverence carries into all of their marketing as you can see in the below ad in support of marriage equality.

We were excited to speak to brewer Matt Licklider today and it was a lot of fun talking about how Redhook got it’s start 30 years ago.  Matt clearly has some great insights on brewing and the various Redhook beers so it was cool to talk beer with him.  It was also interesting to hear Matt’s take on the new Craft Brew Alliance that pairs Redhook with their sister breweries Widmer Brothers and Kona Brewing.  This sounds like a great partnership that will bring us all more great beer that may not otherwise be available in our area.

Of course we sampled beer today, and Redhook was nice enough to send us some Audible Ale to try for ourselves.  Audible Ale is a co-brew done with the Dan Patrick sports show, and it’s a beer that is brewed to be the ultimate craft beer for watching sports.   This Pale Ale is 4.7% ABV and finishes crisp and clean, so I’d say it will work very well for a long day of sports as well as simply being a great Pale Ale.

We were also lucky enough to get our hands on Redhook’s summer seasonal Wisecracker Wit.  This beer is a traditional Belgian Wit that adds ginger to the equation, making it bright and fresh and very drinkable.  I can see this being a great summer deck beer and a wonderful vacation beer.  These are both tasty beers so be sure to get out and try them for yourself.

Thank you to Matt Licklider from Redhook Brewing, Nancy, John & Joe for yet another

fun Friday.

The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together. As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.
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