The Ports
The COMDB Christmas countdown continues with a pit stop at the Ports. Perhaps a more Christmassy pub could probably be found, but this is the only pub where I’ll find my old buddy Rick. Still it’s festive enough for me, with the Rudolph red nosed regulars, and there was the table of ugly sweater competitors too (all winners in my books). How much of a regular is Rick you ask. They even have a beer named after him, a red no less, a festive colour which I believe qualifies for a Christmas countdown quaff. That’s right, a Rickard’s Red.
Unlike some craft brews that the big brewers bought, Rickard’s Red is a Molson Coors crafty “craft” creation, brewed by the big brewer since it was introduced in 1985.* It was Molson’s answer to the competition from a number of real craft brewers that started brewing around that time. No one seemed to explain to Molson that craft brews are a labour of love and not weapons of mass consumption to repair a shrinking market share. After trying to create their own they eventually just started buying craft brewers, and in doing so officially made them no longer craft brewers. News flash, making your beer an ABV of 5.2% rather than 5% doesn’t make it a craft beer. Marketing mavens at work, this scamming has me seeing, and drinking, red.
This particular red pours coppery clear, a red penny for your thoughts. Not much in the aroma department, slight malt c’est tout. It tastes a coppery malt with a touch of bitters and a dry finish with some bitter aftertaste. It is definitely a big brewer craft, in other words not a craft beer. But it is beer, a pretty much run of the mill ale, not even that red to be honest. I enjoyed it because of the company, that being my old buddy Rick not Molson, but it’s not what I would call a festive fridge stocker.
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