PLEASE LINK TO WWW.BREWBASEREVIEWS.COM Copyright 2011-2012. Larry Hatch. All Rights Reserved. For faster reference the Introduction is here Click on the style links below to read each section or search for a specific brand, label, or keyword. Ale - Amber Ale - Barleywine and Wheatwine Ale - Barrel Aged and Oak-Mellowed Ale - Belgian Style - Brown, Amber, or Red Ale - Belgian Style - Golden, Blonde, White, or Wit Ale - Brown and Black Ale - Christmas/Holiday/Winter Ale - Cream Ale - Extra Special Bitter (ESB) Ale - Fruit and Flavored Ale - Golden Ale - India Pale Ale (IPA) Ale - India Pale Ale (IPA) - Flavored or Fruited Ale - India Pale Ale (IPA) - Imperial, Double, Black, or Strong NEW 2/2012 Ale - Pale Ale - Scottish Lager - Amber Lager - Dark (various styles) Lager - Dark - Fruited or FlavoredNEW 12/2012 Lager - Fruited and Flavored Lager - Light Lager - Pilsener, Pilsner, Kolsch and other Golden style Lambic Oktoberfest/Fall/Autumn/Halloween/Pumpkin - Ale and Lager Porter Porter - Barrel-aged NEW 1.6.2013 Porter - Flavored or Fruited Rauchbier/Smoked Beer - various styles Rye, Rice, Sorghum, Millet, Spelt, Buckwheat (Soba), No Grain, and Alternative Grains Stout Stout - Barrel-aged NEW 1.6.2013 Stout - Fruited and Flavored Wheat - Regular, Kristall, or Hefe-Weizen Wheat - Dark or Dunkel Wheat - Fruited and Flavored Wine x Beer Hybrids New classifications splits are in the works. A few suggestions are: ● Ale - Fresh hops or wet-hopped ● Lager - Kolsch ● Ale - Saison and Sour ALE - AMBER Aass Amber RATING: 5.0 Norway From Drammen and Norway's oldest brewery (1834) comes this clear but dark amber in a wonderful shoulder- less bottle and 19th century style label. The taste is unique among those in this file. This all-natural beer is hard to describe but one finds the taste of golden hominy, hops, Pils, and herbs to be most apparent. It is very refined at all taste levels and with such sumptuous hoppy flavors it could become one's favorite of all ambers. I considered it the best new amber beer I tasted in 1992. Aass Jubilee RATING: 5.0 Norway This bottom-fermented and lagered ale takes 3 months to brew. The seasoning comes from Hallertau hops and the color proves light amber. The taste of hops and fruit are abundant like an good amber lager. Even though the cap has green and red colors it is NOTHING like their Christmas Winter Ale. As their regular Amber is not a lager it too is quite different. While perfect it is in a crowded field of amber fruity lagers - including several Americans. Abita Bock RATING: 4.0 Abita Springs, Louisiana From Abita Springs in Louisiana comes this bock that is not described anywhere on the packaging. Color is light amber and the carbonation is lasting. Flavor is modest but nicely sweet and malty. Like their Turbo Dog is needs a bit more flavor to really contend with the competition. It is LESS hoppy than Rolling Rock Bock and vastly superior to Shiner Bock. One almost gets a very slight mint flavor with it. While not worldclass it is satisfying and worth a try. Reviewers here noted "lovely semi-cloudy carmel color...nice sweet-fruit-malt blend" and "maybe not what German breweries send out as bock but still a rewarding drink with good balance...I'd prefer a bit more depth though". In 1995 three BrewBase users did give it a perfect 5 but most wanted more character. Abita Bock (c. 1995) RATING: 3.0 Abita Springs, Louisiana These green and yellow painted bottles set us back just $2.29 (1995) and yielded a pumpkin orange beer with a persistant head and spritely carbonation. Like many Abita products it is a reasonable flavor value for the money but you never quite get worldclass quality. While their recent Fall Fest and Christmas 1994 specials were 'very good' (4 bottle rating here) this bock is not as enjoyable. There was a muddled flavor with some malt notes but no clear and orderly palate. The finish could be bitter (even at icy cold temps) and that too harmed the tasting experience. One of us described this as a bit like an 'amber malt liquor' as far as malt depth and clean finish were con- cerned. We know they can turn up the malt flavor. And they really must. Abita Mardi Gras Bock RATING: 3.5 Abita Springs, Louisiana The bright orangish-gold (vaguely amber) pour has a very light, whitish head and limited carbonation. Noise is faint malt, pleasant so. I was surprised the the malt was so rich for sometime not nearly dark amber or brownish at all. The malt is warming, brothy, corn-flavored, bread-toastsy, somewhat faithful to the style but a notch or two weaker than what anyone is Germany would care to send over. There seems to be some confusion and visiting their website adds to it. Their "regular" Bock has a blue and blue-green label and is said on the web page to be "very popular..especially during our Mardi Gras season". It is apparently not this Mardi Gras Bock with comes with a foiled forest green label with a purple and gold foil on it; unless of course repackaging has been done for the local festival. My companion reviewers here notes the occasional off finish note but we did not find that in all glasses or bottles. It is okay and not great, acceptable and in being just acceptable it will probably go untried by us again. It's a tough world for acceptable, decent beers these days and our increasingly limited greenbacks are more apt to go for quality and flavor values. Let me check out that Saranac stock... Algonquin Special Reserve Dark Ale RATING: 3.0 Formosa This Canadian microbrew comes in 1 litre PLASTIC bottles like a big coke or something. That's a first for us. This selection which won the Gold Medal in 1991 Monde Selection is actually an AMBER ALE and not a dark beer of any sort. There are many darker ales in the world. The head is big, white, and foamy. It lingers. It first palate it appears somewhat thin but then a cascade of slight- ly fuller and sweet hops comes in. Reviewers comments that 'for an ale, dark or pale, it is remarkably thin on taste' and 'refreshing but still short of where it needs to be'. The misnaming was mentioned by nearly all and one noted that 'they need to RESERVE more ingredients to make it truly dark or truly ale...right now its neither.' [Bierra] Amarcord Nero's 1st Century Double Dark Malt Ale RATING: 3.5 Apecchio, Italy These hardware-capped 500ml are surprising dark amber for something called "dark". It is not the least bit red (neither was their Red Ale) nor is there any hint of brown in any form, not chestnut nor mahogany nor anything even brownish-amber. The head is mid cream and fairly large. Small but visible lace. It is double-ish at 8% ABV and at first sip it is far more malty than the amber color usually predicts. It is richly Old World malt, ladden with some fruit of mixed quality, tropical in bits, quite dark and citrus-styled at other points, occasionally tangy towards a sharpish, dry finish. There was not enough malt nor raisiny dark fruit to match the name but judged for it actually is: we found it a bit tedious and annoyingly-semi-harsh from time to time. There were too many odd notes (not off nor ugly), just awkward and not designed to please. It is goofy and far too bitter in the finish more more than half our panelists. We found their Red Ale and this Italian treat at Trader Joes in Cary NC in fall 2012. More curious than enjoyable to all of us. Anchor Steam Liberty Ale RATING: 5.0 San Francisco, California This traditional ale from SF CA is colored cloudy amber not unlike a good rich apple cider. Using top-fermented yeast they acheive a very persistant white head and abundant carbonation. It aged for months and dry-hopped in sealed vats. While we thought the Anchor Steam Beer was less than perfect this ale has a complex herbal taste of the first order. It can have a slight bitterness that might give Sierra Nevada Pale Ale a slight superiority. Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale RATING: 5.0 California This popular California amber is medium dark but still bright in a glass. The balance between hop and fruit flavors is refined and quite pleasant. When tasted head to head with North Coast Christmas Ale 1992 and Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale one can appreciate how hop flavors are more developed here with fruit more in the background. Finish is semi-dry. It is far sweeter and less herbal than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Both are equally sophisticated in their own way but beasts of a different order. Avery Collaboration not Litigation Ale (Batch #2, Feb. 2008) RATING: 4.0 Boulder, Colorado If this big bottle had a celebritory cork I'd suspect this was a brew designed to help law firms laud a win between the walnut rails. Not a big market really but I'd figure they'd pay $212 a bottle but tip and make it worthwhile for some brewery. This 8.72% ABV offering pours cloudy amber (so far so great), lace as persistant as an ambulance chaser with speed-dial, and creamy, firm head like the new blonde temp in the Class Action Department...sorry, went too far. First nose was malt with a curious punch of pecan...and you know by know I never name a fruit for sake of effect.