Amber (Dry Hopped With Liberty)
Saint Arnold Brewing Company

03.26.15: Truncated live review. Expectations are quite low; I didn't take to their regular amber at all. Served cold into a gueuze glass.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

APPEARANCE: Head is shallow and thin, with a generic white colour. It's barely ~1cm thick, and quickly recedes, leaving no lacing. The body isn't much better; it's a far cry from amber, and instead is a clear dark yellow with faint copper hues. I see no yeast or sediment.

Pretty poor appearance for an ostensible amber.

AROMA: Grassy, with crackery malts, Munich malts, and some faint floral hop notes. Quite reticent/closed-off. Suggests a shallow beer that tastes more like a Munich Helles lager than an amber ale.

Aromatic intensity is below average.

There's no toastiness or amber malt whatsoever.

TASTE: Definitely an ale, given its estery taste. But the crackery malt backbone coupled with some caramalt and Munich malts is generic and uninspired, and worse - it has nothing to do with an amber. Why Caravienne and 2-row malts instead of Vienna or amber malts? Why!?

The hop character - contrary to the marketing - is shallow and mild. Grassy and floral. I don't find any real fruit, juiciness, citrus, dankness, herbal character, resins, pine, etc. It's a dull hop profile, and isn't well suited the malt backbone at all.

There's nothing of interest in terms of yeast character. Attenuation seems middling.

This just plain isn't an amber. There's no toastiness, altbier characteristics, Vienna malts, or amber malts. It's a shallow, plain brew with an ill-concocted flavour profile and no subtlety, balance, intricacy, or intriguing characteristics at all. Not liking this..

TEXTURE: Uncharacteristically dry, with a parching rough scratchy feel on the palate. Unrefreshing, overcarbonated, and too full-bodied, with entirely too much heft and weight on the palate for...whatever this is. A crappy attempt at a Belgian pale, maybe?

Poor execution across the board.

OVERALL: I'd give constructive notes on how they could improve the recipe, but in all honesty this is just one of those beers you start anew with. There's nothing here for amber fans or discerning drinkers. Just a mundane pedestrian brew which doesn't come anywhere close to its intended style. It's not entirely undrinkable, but this might be Saint Arnold's worst beer...or is the regular amber? Meh; there's hardly a difference between the two. I'm not sure why they bother bringing this to market.

*Apparently this won a GABF Bronze Medal in the Extra Special Bitter category. For what it's worth, it's rather bad as an ESB as well...is *this* really a dry hopped variant of their FLAGSHIP? Why did they choose this as their flagship?

**Okay, after further research: apparently in spite of this being marketed (and named) an Amber, *and* in spite of it winning medals in the ESB category at more than just GABF, Saint Arnold claims that:

"When our first production batch of Amber Ale was released, we discovered that we had inadvertently brewed an IPA."

...There are no words.

D+

 

 

A: 3.5 - Clear golden color with a smallish white head.
S: 3.5 - Huh, I expected at least some decent aroma hops, but the scent is quite faint, just a light dusting of hops.
T: 3.75 - Flavor is a little better. Moderately bitter with very grassy hop flavor, with a light clean maltiness and little yeast character.
M: 3.5 - Average, neutral mouth feel.
O: 3.5 - It's basically St Arnold's Amber--a very bland, ordinary beer from the early 90s, when every microbrewer had essentially the same kind of lineup, with a little additional hoppiness.

 

On cask at Hay Merchant in Houston.

A: Pours a golden/copper color. A thick white head rises to two fingers. Rings of sticky lace are left behind.
S: Sweet and bready malts up front. The hops come in next, and spicy, floral and some bitterness lingers.
T: Again, the malts are sweet up front. Bread and biscuit like. Floral hops, then some citrus rind and lingering bitterness.
M/D: A medium body that is perfectly carbonated for cask conditioning. Ultra smooth and velvety. Really enjoyable to drink. Easily, something I can drink multiples in a sitting.

Saint Arnold has always produced great casks. Ones that are simple, and the cask actually enhances the profile. That with the added hops, makes this really enjoyable.

 

 

 

This is what I always wanted St. Arnold Amber to be. When St. Arnold started showing up at the Ale House on Tap, Amber is what we got...problem was that Sierra Nevada was king at that time and the St Arnold's Amber was not as lively as SNPA (and they never really competed with a spritzy Pale Ale or IPA). Regular SAAmber desperately needed this hop infusion, IMHO since Amber has always felt like a stepchild to me. Maybe they can keep making it and call it Liberty Amber Ale. I wish they had made this 20 years ago, besides Endeavor (which is a more recent release compared to Amber), it's what is missing from their offerings. Love this beer. Make us some more hoppy stuff guys!!!