Has anyone tried Alexander Keiths red amber ale?

A friend of mine just hooked me up with a couple of Alexander Keiths red amber ales straight from the great white north. Has anyone ever tried this one? Is it any good? I'd love to try one now but I don't think my boss would like it. Thanks for any feed back.

So, how was it?????

It's not too bad, but I don't much care for it myself. I don't like their IPA either, it's not very IPA like in my opinion.

I didn't mind the amber, but like Bradsul says, the IPA sucks. They got the pale down, but missed the hop bill entirely to qualify for an India Pale Ale. The amber had a nice malty character to it that was somewhat balanced but I find that the entire line of Keith's is low on hops, much like all the popular commercial brands. I have not found a single domestic brand that had any kind of real hop bitterness to it. Just the English and Irish imports.

Thanks for the feed back. I found it to be about a half step above a Budwieser. Nothing great and it mustn't have been straight out of Canada because it said 5% on the bottle. Oh well guess I'll have to go to Canada to get a real Canadian beer.

bigjohnmilford said:

Thanks for the feed back. I found it to be about a half step above a Budwieser. Nothing great and it mustn't have been straight out of Canada because it said 5% on the bottle. Oh well guess I'll have to go to Canada to get a real Canadian beer.

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You mean Molson ain't good enough for you, eh?

bigjohnmilford said:

Thanks for the feed back. I found it to be about a half step above a Budwieser. Nothing great and it mustn't have been straight out of Canada because it said 5% on the bottle. Oh well guess I'll have to go to Canada to get a real Canadian beer.

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My GF is from NS and everything she has said about Keiths gave me that impression...

Not to rain on your parade, but its mediocre at best. I had it at the brewery about 5 years ago and it was ok I guess

It's a relative thing. Compared to most BMC (we'll have to invent a Canadian equivalent for that) type beers, it's much better. As a person who generally drank Keith's for a lot of years, it was my choice from that brewer before I stopped buying beer altogether.

mr x said:

It's a relative thing. Compared to most BMC (we'll have to invent a Canadian equivalent for that) type beers, it's much better. As a person who generally drank Keith's for a lot of years, it was my choice from that brewer before I stopped buying beer altogether.

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I agree it's definitely superior to BMC (and Canadian equivalent) products. It is my beer of choice at my favourite pool hall which only carries BMC products and I still enjoy it in that setting. That said if they had Guinness in cans I'd be nowhere near the draught towers.

Im from Nova Scotia and I find the red amber ale ok. Usually when I buy a commercial beer I buy their regular pale ale. Some people have commented it is not like a traditional pale ale - this is true - because it is a commercial beer. The masses tend to like clear light beers - and this pretty well fits the bill. If you want a true hoppy IPA your best to go with your local microbrewer.

For what it is though Keiths makes a decent beer - I enjoy it.

I just so happen to have two bottles of the IPA chilling in the fridge!

I had one bottle and didn't find it too bad compared to other mega brews. To each, his own.

where i live it's one of the better beers available...this is a bit of a wasteland for genuinely good beers...partly the reason i got into homebrewing...but i know too many nova scotians to publicly berate the beer in public. had my first dogfish head in the states a few weeks ago...i had no idea an ipa could taste like that

brewt00l said:

I just so happen to have two bottles of the IPA chilling in the fridge!

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That was interesting..as soon as I started pouring the beer I could tell that it wasn't going to be what I expected. For a BMC style brew, it's not horrible (light color, slight cidery flavor, little hop presence)...but an IPA it sure aint. Strikes me as the Maritimes equivalent of Yuengling.

brewt00l said:

That was interesting..as soon as I started pouring the beer I could tell that it wasn't going to be what I expected. For a BMC style brew, it's not horrible (light color, slight cidery flavor, little hop presence)...but an IPA it sure aint. Strikes me as the Maritimes equivalent of Yuengling.

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Just don't let it warm up too much as you drink it - the flavour it develops is horrible!

bradsul said:

Just don't let it warm up too much as you drink it - the flavour it develops is horrible!

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Yes, I found that out...it gets a bit funky as it warms up.

One of my favs!

....well my favorite 6 liter pitcher for 8 loony's! At least that's what they cost at "Blackjacks" punkrock night on Rue Notre Dame in Montréal. I have a picture of me and one of those 6 liter Keiths pitchers and its two times bigger than my head!

Anybody have a recipe? If not, I am going to attempt one.

Just curious what the hell those adjuncts are, maybe as much corn as Bass if not more. Pretty sure there is corn and not any rice. Not a bad beer at all, I quite enjoy it, and most of their beers, it seems they have a British/Scottish thing going on. Great for what it is, but definitely inferior to "Bière St Ambroise/Griffon" and my favorite beers of that region by far "Dieu Du Ciel"!

For what Keiths is though, it is definitely better than most any commercial beers I would say.

santé!!!