Cliff's Amber
Vashon Brewing Company

I might as well put my perspective (biases?) right up front in this review.

First, and obvious to most of you, I'm a Vashon guy, and Cliff is our local Vashon Island nano brewer, so yes, maybe I'm a homer. I had this beer on tap at the Vashon movie theater ... very cool to get craft beer on tap while watching a movie.

Second, I'm not big on amber/red ales. I find most of them to be fairly boring. And my ratings bear this out ... of the seven red ales I've rated where there are enough ratings for a comparison, my scores are below the average on six of them. OK, so I'm a skeptic.

But I was pleasantly surprised by Cliff's Amber. This is an interesting beer. It's full bodied and somewhat hoppy. It's got a lot of roasted malts, unlike most ambers. It's almost halfway to a porter in its roasted character. It's anything but bland, which is my reaction to many ambers.

I can't say much about appearance, because, hey, it was dark in the movie theater.

Cliff's beers are served locally on Vashon, and on the ferry runs from Fauntleroy. If you happen to see this while riding the ferries, it's well worth a try!