Lucky 13 Mondo Red
Ale
Review Date 8/7/2007
Try?
Re-buy?
It seems that a lot of breweries are having
anniversaries these days. Some of that may just be a slick way to try to
market their beer. But it’s also a sign that the craft beer business is
maturing, growing, and gaining a solid foothold in American culture.
Petaluma, California’s Lagunitas brewery celebrates its thirteenth
anniversary in 2007, and to honor that simultaneously lucky and unlucky
milestone, they’ve released Lucky 13 Anniversary Ale.
Lagunitas has perhaps one of the biggest beer portfolios of any bottling microbrewer in the business, and I’ve been drinking a lot of their beer lately. They describe the Lucky 13 as a ““Mondo Large Red Ale”, or basically a red ale on steroids.
But wait! Lagunitas already has a Red Ale like that, aka their Imperial Red Ale . Well, that may be true, but Lucky 13 is not a rebottling of that brew, though the two are similar. Lucky 13, for example, has an original gravity of 1.085 and 76.92 IBUs of bitterness with 8.3% alcohol by volume, while the Imperial Red has an original gravity of1.072, 84 IBUs of bitterness, and 7.6% alcohol by volume.
Now you ask, just what the bloody heck is original gravity? Recall your high school chemistry if you will and your lessons on density. Water is the standard for original gravity, having an O.G. of 1.0. So, everything else is measured pretty much in terms of how dense it is compared to water.
As it happens, beer is made with lots and lots of water. What makes it more than just water, however, is the addition of barley malt, hops, and perhaps other ingredients. And the more of those you add, the higher the specific gravity. So, for example, in the case of Lucky 13, a volume of the unfermented wort of this beer equal to a volume of water that weighed 1000 pounds would way 1072 pounds, more or less.
That’s all well and good, you say, but what does that do for me, the beer drinker? Simply put, a higher specific gravity usually means more fermentable sugars. And when the wort is pitched with yeast, those little buggers see all that sugar like the local Golden Corral, and start doing their thing. That means a higher alcohol beer. A higher specific gravity often means more non-fermentable sugars, too, meaning more texture or body in the final product.
OK, you say, enough of the science lesson, give me beer! Well, here it is.
Lagunitas Lucky 13 pours to a deep coppery reddish color with a light
creamy head formation and a slightly resiny hop nose. Lots of caramel jumps
at you right away when you sip, and the beer has a firm and thick mouthfeel
to it. Then the hops start to emerge, piney and resiny and grapefruity too,
gradually becoming intensely bitter in the long dry finish. The bitterness
lingers for a quite awhile after sipping.
That kind of bitterness is essential to balance out all the chewy caramel here. As I said, Lagunitas calls this a Mondo Red, but it really tastes like a big IPA to me, just like the Imperial Red pretty much did. This one won’t likely be around as long, however, so if you see a bottle, why not snap it up? Lagunitas beers are usually a steal in the bomber bottles, and I paid a paltry $2.99 for mine.
Lagunitas has perhaps one of the biggest beer portfolios of any bottling microbrewer in the business, and I’ve been drinking a lot of their beer lately. They describe the Lucky 13 as a ““Mondo Large Red Ale”, or basically a red ale on steroids.
But wait! Lagunitas already has a Red Ale like that, aka their Imperial Red Ale . Well, that may be true, but Lucky 13 is not a rebottling of that brew, though the two are similar. Lucky 13, for example, has an original gravity of 1.085 and 76.92 IBUs of bitterness with 8.3% alcohol by volume, while the Imperial Red has an original gravity of1.072, 84 IBUs of bitterness, and 7.6% alcohol by volume.
Now you ask, just what the bloody heck is original gravity? Recall your high school chemistry if you will and your lessons on density. Water is the standard for original gravity, having an O.G. of 1.0. So, everything else is measured pretty much in terms of how dense it is compared to water.
As it happens, beer is made with lots and lots of water. What makes it more than just water, however, is the addition of barley malt, hops, and perhaps other ingredients. And the more of those you add, the higher the specific gravity. So, for example, in the case of Lucky 13, a volume of the unfermented wort of this beer equal to a volume of water that weighed 1000 pounds would way 1072 pounds, more or less.
That’s all well and good, you say, but what does that do for me, the beer drinker? Simply put, a higher specific gravity usually means more fermentable sugars. And when the wort is pitched with yeast, those little buggers see all that sugar like the local Golden Corral, and start doing their thing. That means a higher alcohol beer. A higher specific gravity often means more non-fermentable sugars, too, meaning more texture or body in the final product.
OK, you say, enough of the science lesson, give me beer! Well, here it is.
Lagunitas Lucky 13 pours to a deep coppery reddish color with a light
creamy head formation and a slightly resiny hop nose. Lots of caramel jumps
at you right away when you sip, and the beer has a firm and thick mouthfeel
to it. Then the hops start to emerge, piney and resiny and grapefruity too,
gradually becoming intensely bitter in the long dry finish. The bitterness
lingers for a quite awhile after sipping. That kind of bitterness is essential to balance out all the chewy caramel here. As I said, Lagunitas calls this a Mondo Red, but it really tastes like a big IPA to me, just like the Imperial Red pretty much did. This one won’t likely be around as long, however, so if you see a bottle, why not snap it up? Lagunitas beers are usually a steal in the bomber bottles, and I paid a paltry $2.99 for mine.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
