The Craft Beer Market
Lead Dog Brewing is a craft brewer located in Reno & Sparks, Nevada. The craft beer market grew rapidly over the last 40 years after Congress legalized homebrewing in 1978, inspiring many beer enthusiasts to start their own small breweries. Today the overall beer market is saturated, with sales flattening and the number of breweries closing exceeding the number opening. The predicted “beer apocalypse” is upon us
Lead Dog Brewing
Lead Dog Brewing has a brewery in downtown Reno and a tasting room in nearby Sparks, Nevada. Ryan Gaumer launched Lead Dog Brewing in Reno in January 2017. Since that time it merged with Mammoth Brewing and then Gaumer returned and then the brewery relocated its production to Revision Brewing’s facility. The brewery has a large selection of beers and emphasizes the artwork on its beers.
Lead Dog Brewing Left for Red Ale
Lead Dog describes Left for Red Ale as “Extra malty and quite possibly the best red around.” Left for Red Ale has a 5.9% ABV and 29 IBU. There is no other nutrition information available. It has a “Good” rating on Beer Advocate but that is based on 1 review. It has 3.71 rating out of 5 on Untappd.
Our Review of Left for Red Ale
I like red ales and lagers and shy away from bitter beers or beers with a strong aftertaste. One of my favorites is Figueroa Mountain Danish Red Lager. I had never heard of Lead Dog Brewing or Left for Red Ale, but I assumed it would be a beer I would like based on the category. I personally did not care about the artwork on the can that Lead Dog seems to make a big deal about, but maybe subconsciously I noticed it on the shelf due to the unique artwork. Artwork has zero impact on how a beer tastes.
If you watch the video of the taste test, I enjoyed this beer and would drink it again, but I would not go out of my way to have it. Lead Dog makes a big deal about the “malty flavor” but I did not find it that malty. It also was not as clean tasting as Danish Red Lager. It tasted like a basic red ale, which is just fine.
For another recommendation, see our review of Figueroa Mountain Danish Red Lager.
For beer nutritional information of all beers we have reviewed see Beer Nutritional Information.
