Fischer Réserve Ambrée (Dorelei)
Brasserie Fischer / Fischer Biere d' Alsace

Looks ok, but this is awful. Practically undrinkable. Sweet, syrupy, tastes like licorice. I wouldn't even consider this to be a real beer. It's something else entirely. Something worse.

Regular cap, not a flip-top as illustrated. 6.3%, attractive 650ml shaped bottle.
BBE: 04/2023 - Hmm!
L- Dark amber, pours clear, pale tan fine-bubble head.
S- Spicy notes, nice.
T- Rich malts. some spice and some sweetness comes in - ugh. Light hops.
F- Rich to sweet, underhopped.
O- A shame, elegant looking 'classically' shaped bottle. Yet it contains a 'fat' higher ABV% adjunct instead of anything with pedigree. Drink very cold or the sugar risks becoming overwhelming.
Contains: Barley malt, glucose syrup (!!) and sugar [gawd 'elp me!!!?].

A dog in sheeps clothing. I'd suggest avoiding, there is far better out there.
There is something of a pattern in Parisian convenience shops. Big 'impressive' and pretty bottles of higher-ABV% beer such as this that contain adjunct stuff like this. X-ref Ch'ti brand beers in this category and be warned.

Boire de la Fischer Ambrée, c'est comme acheter un jeux à Micromania à 4€ et devoir le rendre à 1€ parce qu'il est nul à chier, sauf que là tu degueules

One of the first beers I liked

If it wasn't so sweet, it'd be great.

Apparently, I can’t get my palate around this kind of beer.
It’s got a nice colour. Smell isn’t bad.
But the sweetness hits my mouth like a battering ram, overpowering most other nuances.
If you like the Krieks, go for it.
Otherwise, avoid.
As a beer It’s a tad better than the Leffe Ruby, but not by much.
Only way I can see myself really enjoying this is in a tall glass, over ice cubes.
Or better yet, over frozen strawberries and a twig of mint.

 

 

 

 

Beer bottle (65cl.), tasted in 2000.
A nice bottle (with a cap porcelain mechanics). The label is printed over a stork (Alsace symbol).

Appearance : amber color, with white foamy head.
Smell : malty and spicy aromas.
Taste and mouthfeel : malt sweetness is balanced by fine bitterness of hops.
Drinkability : a good beer in the style spicy/herbed ale.

50cl can: This one pours a clear amber color. There was a bit of a white head on it, but that dropped off almost immediately. Aroma isn’t bad at all. Some caramel malt sweetness, as well as some fruits and spiciness. They are a bit subdued and hidden by the sweetness, so it is hard to identify them. The taste is a touch sweet, with faint touches of spiciness and a slight bready taste to it. OK.

Pours a clear light copper color with a 1/2 inch off-white head.
Aroma of cloves, licerice, and anise. A bit hoppy on the nose. Bit of a sweet belgian smell to the beer. Almost a savory smell to the beer. I know the bottle mentions "beer with vegetable extracts" but I wasn't sure how much of it was going to come out in the beer. You can definately tell something is there
Quite malty. Limited hops character. Cardamum spicyness. Cinnamon, vanilla. Tough to really pull out the flavors on this one.
Med/Heavy mouthfeel. Quite thick actually. Medium carbonation.
Decent beer. Definately not what I was expecting from a Belgian Pale. I'd revisit this beer again though. Nice beer.

500 ml clear swingtop & silk print bottle, bought in France. Deep golden to amber colour, decent head and lacing. Unusual sweetish fruity and candy aroma, notes of cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, herbs and boiled vegetables too. Sweetish and sugary flavour, notes of vanilla, cinnamon and other spices. Lagerish mouthfeel. I don’t quite know what to make of this beer - it’s something out of the ordinary, but in the end it’s just too sugary and weird for my taste.

I had this in a bar in Strasbourg (Academie de la Biere) and found it very enjoyable. Unlike a lot of beers made with spices, the spice flavor complemented the flavor rather than overpowering it. Unfortunately I couldn't find any in bottles or I would've brought some back.

Wandering around Autumn 2004 in Strasbourg near the cathedral, I came upon the Place du Marché au Cochon de Lait, where there was a beckoning 5-storey mediaeval half-timber building with a restaurant on the ground floor called Restaurant Ortenberg. Besides some absolutely delicious pizza, they had some Fischer beers, one of them being this Dorelei: an amber beer brewed with spices, which makes it a bit of a hybrid. Despite the absolutely tiny interior of the restaurant, I breathed a sigh of relief when I seen a good 4 or 5 taps of all local beer.
Dorelei is magnificent looking when poured from the tap into its distinctive glass(note: in my user icon-picture, this is the beer I am holding.) The glass really complements the dusty red and garnet beer, with a consistent cream-coloured head that left superb lacing. One of the most attractive beers I had on my journeys over there. The nose is rich malty caramel, but with a lot of spiciness. Little hopping, but enough complexity to make this worth sniffing deeply every time the glass is raised. The taste fulfilled the aroma, giving a medium to full bodied warm maltiness, and the unique nuances of the spices used in this beer, adding a great deal of complexity. The tastes are actually extremely different from any other beer--instead of fruits, faint vegetable notes dominate, which actually did not taste bad at all. Some might say gimmicky, I say unique, and extremely drinkable, even at 6.3 percent. The alcohol was completely undetectable in the flavour. I thought the glass was so attractive I asked if I could buy the glass itself, but the server instead just gave a brand new one to me for free! Even better. I would love to taste this again. Good beer, great food, and a perfect setting in the medieval streets of Strasbourg's old town--no wonder this beer holds a special place in my heart.

The Dorelei comes in a pretty old-fashioned bottle. The beer is supposed to be brewed old-style, so they want to show it on the bottle. The label says it is “skimmed traditional-style”.


The color was something like dark copper, if that exists. The head was small and disappeared quickly. The smell revealed lots of spices, like in Christmas beers. It’s not really a surprise, since the label also says that the beer is brewed with spices. The taste is bitter and spicy. I guessed cinnamon but I’m not sure that was it. Also the beer was very citric and sweet. It left a weird aftertaste, kind of bitter but not too much.

Dorelei is a very refreshing beer. For me, it’s Fischer’s best beer (although I haven’t had their Amber in a while). It’s the beer I buy for people who come at my place and who don’t care about beer. It has nothing amazing, but it’s still way better than kronenbourg and I don’t feel bad for serving them bad beer. A good session drink I guess.

Bronze colour, with copper reflexes, foam not persistent, not-so-white, compact.
The smell is floreal, hop, bitter, citric, maybe spices.
The taste is sweet (acacia honey?), and citric.
The body is medium-light, and the aftertaste is completely citric (where is the hop?).
This is pratically like beer with gazosa (radler).