The French Connection - Ambrée
Brasserie Saint-Germain

Poured from a brown 11.3? oz.bottle. Has an orange/beige color with a 1 inch head. Smell is of apples, yeast, a bit funky. Taste is apples, grains, some herbal notes, a touch sour. Feels medium/light bodied in the mouth and overall this beer is mediocre at best.

 

 

 

Pours a hazy copper / amber edges with thick, dense white head, settles slowly to a half inch with a sheet of thick lace halfway down. Smell: sweet and bready, cooked red apple, apricot jam, sweet orange peel note, earthy. Taste: caramel apple, unripe peach, grain twang, herbal note, fairly earthy towards the finish. The feel is a bit mineraly and thins out a bit quickly, but is otherwise nice. Glad to have tried this.

 

With all the Belgian abbey influence of Dubbel scales down to that of amber-type body and proportion, the reddish ale of spice and fruit chases the steely caramel and earthen hop profile of pale ale done the Belgian way.

Stillwater's influence is strong as the beer's bubbly character not only entices the eye, but bounces its raw barley sweetness off of the tongue and ushers in a mildly toasted flavor of bread crust, pecan and a shell of caramel. As rose wine acidity makes its mark, the beer changes course over the middle.

That's where the sweetness lifts and its shy fruitcake flavor turns peppery, vinous and moderately toasty. Hop spice makes a showing with fresh-cut grass, damp straw, clove, cumin and chive. More peppery as the taste develops, its spicy finish looms.

And that's the final turn to complete dryness with a bitter hop bite to close the session crisply, cleanly and dry. Its a handsome taste who's dryness promotes a warm and peppery linger despite its moderate alcohol, ideally suited for grilled seafood like buttery scallops and cedar plank sea bass.

 

 

an interesting brew, somewhere near a french amber, yeasty though, and remarkably hoppy, particularly on the nose, weed-like in that regard. hazy light orange in color with just under an inch of white head. it smells like sticky buds and funky european yeast in equal proportions. the flavor carries the hops, has a touch of citrus fruit, and an herbal almost white wine acidity and yeast complexion. strange and clean, easy enough drinking, but not my favorite mix of elements. great bubbles though and a rich medium body that drinks rather brightly. the citrus and the sticky hops is an odd finish. i wouldn't pay the 6 bucks this costs again, but i appreciate the effort. i taste stillwaters yeas here, very familiar to their other saisons. it doesn't do quite so well in this format.

330 mL bottle poured into a tulip

A- A hazy copper/amber color with a massive fluffy white head.

S- Slightly tat apples, some sweet apples, touch of lemons, hint of cinnamon, yeast, beardy malts, hint of black pepper, kind smells a little like apple sauce.

T- Apples, some funk, cracked black pepper, some lemons upfront, malts are slightly biscuity along with being grainy.

M- Light to medium body, carbonation is a little low.

O- Another enjoyable beer that Stillwater helped brew. Probably will pick this up again soon.

 

 

 

 

Poured into a Nostradamus flute glass. Pours a medium golden amber with active carbonation and a fine one finger white head with great retention and lacing. Aroma of slightly funky saison yeast, light lemon citrus, mild bready malt, peppery and slightly earthy. Flavor with a spike of wild yeast quickly fading to light sweet malt, citrus rind, faint caramel, finishing dry with light grassy hops and residual wild yeast funkiness. Light bodied with pleasant carbonation. A rather subtly flavored farmhouse, but with a pleasant complexity in the seeming simplicity. Interesting flavor progression. Delicate, dry and nicely made.

 

 

 

A: The beer is clear golden yellowish amber in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a finger and a half high white head that took a very long time to die down and left a thick pillow in the center of the glass and a coating of bubbles on the surface and down the sides of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of Belgian and earthy yeast are present in the nose along with notes of spices.
T: The taste very much follows the smell and has flavors of Belgian and fruity yeast along with notes of spices, hints of grainy malts and a light amount of bitterness.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and rather dry on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: I really liked the dryness in this beer because it made it really refreshing.