Leinenkugel's Red Lager

Leinenkugel’s Red Lager is a Vienna Style Lager. In Wisconsin, this beer is affectionately called Leinie’s Red, and is a fairly popular beer. Not quite as popula

r as New Glarus’ Spotted Cow, but popular non-the-less. Although I feel Leinenkugel’s often caters to the masses with most beer being either very bland or over flavored with artificial flavors, they do have some good offerings. I have yet to find an outstanding beer, since they stopped making No

rthwoods Lager, but when they come out with something new, usually you do want to give it a try. A few of Leinies that I do enjoy are 1888 Bock, Creamy Dark, and Leinies red. This bottle of Leinies Red was donated to me, but I wouldn’t  mind having a few in the fridge for visitors because it may not be the best Vienna lager, but it’s not bad.

The aroma of this beer is very clean. There is a nice toasted malt character to the beer, with very little spicy hop presence.  In all honesty there is not much to the aroma other than the toasty malt character with some underlying  melenodian aroma. In sort is smells like a very small bock. There is no caramel aroma in this beer, but many times people mi

stake the toasty vienna malt for caramel character. If you pay close attention and think of how caramel smells, you will notice that this aroma is a bit different.

This is a very pretty beer. It pours bright and clear with a nice rich reddish amber color. It pours a nice head that lasts for several minutes.

The flavor is where the beer falls just a bit short.  The malt profile matches the aroma and although the malt flavor is soft, it is just a bit too small in my opinion. There is a slightly sweet aspect to the beer, but it does finish dry, as it should. The hop bitterness is just barely enough to balance, but it does its job. The Vienna malt flavor is very evident in the finish and fairly pleasant. The only thoughts I have on the flavor is that it could be just a bit bigger in malt side. Not very much, but just a touch more. The components are nice, just too small.

The mouthfeel is medium, but on the lighter side of that. The small addition of malt would bring that feel more into the medium range. All other aspects of the beer feel right on.

For a Vienna lager, I feel that this beer is a very good example of the style. It is clean and has the toasty quality that you should see in a Vienna Lager. The melenoiden character is nice and he hops are sitting where they should be for this beer style. The only downfall of the beer is that it is a bit small on the malt side. Although all the flavor and aroma components are there, they are fairly small.

In the end, I generously score this beer a 34 which is a very good example of the beer. A 34 would be a B- in my book.