Could have sworn I tried this imperial red beer once before, but since I had no real recollection of it and had recently read a glowing review, I decided to throw down for a bottle and give it a go. Petaluma, CA’s LAGUNITAS BREWING already make a jaw-dropping imperial red ale – the, get this, LAGUNITAS IMPERIAL RED – so it stands to reason that another similar formulation might do the trick. Slap a cute girl and a horseshoe on the bottle, mix up the vats a bit, and bingo! Let’s find out how it came together.LAGUNITAS LUCKY 13 is, as expected, dominated by malts, and has medium hops. A thinner body that expected takes this down a small notch, and gives it a generally less-than-robust sort of feel in the mouth, commonly called “mouthfeel”, wink wink. Taste is light caramel and even a faint woodiness. Drinkability is high, which is pretty standard with all LAGUNITAS beers. They don’t play in the deep end of the pool, but neither are they flailing in the shallow end. I do like this one – I do. I could and will drink it again. Not quite that IMPERIAL RED, which is in a class by itself (which I understand might be defunct??!?? - noooooo), but quite strong. 7.5/10.
