Amber
Summit Brewing Company

Originally reviewed on September 17, 2005. Poured from a bottle at the Big Lake Brewfest. Amber pour (duh). Aroma is a musty malt and flavor continues on that note. Finishes a little watery. Not exciting, as the malt doesn't show much character, but it falls within a good range of drinkability.

Mmmm. I liked this.

Deep copper-red in color. I could look at this all night, except that it tasted too good.

I don't recall details of the smell, but the taste was malty-rich. I'm assuming munich malts in the grist. Didn't expect a German influenced beer when I ordered it, but this site calls it an Alt. The sweetness was balanced by slighly fruity and grainy tastes. Quite quaffable!

On-tap at McGovern's: Super clear bright orange color with a slight burnt brown tint to it. Small compact foam on top thats lightly creamy in texture and ivory hued. Keeps a slight open skim and collaring. Laces in small blobs mostly close to the collar.

Aroma is light and airy with just a hint of sweet malt and brown sugar softness. Clean but far to light and nearly non existent in the nose beyond its sweet, very light breadyness.

Taste is OK, clean crystal malt-like sweetness with a touch of breadyness and brown sugar dustings. Very light toasty grain and husks help carry it through to a halfway decent finish where it drys off tightly with a bolder tone of malty sweetness then what the front or middle provide. The finish is really the only thing keeping this beer from being completely bland, but its bordering that line pretty darn closely.

But the feel is respectfully nice and malty rich with just the right amount of easy, creamy carbonation. Seems about medium; perhaps lighter in the front but gains a gradual build that fits it well. Its the Summit O-fests very little brother beer. A smooth and easy drinker thats mild on the taste and smell but is worth trying and having around and a pleasure to see at some local tap lines. Better then the usual macro stuff that tends to dominate the St. Paul scene.

On tap at Tavern on Grand, St. Paul, MN...

Nice transparent amber color, shows some richness and depth of tone, the head however is short and soupy, and not long-lasting. Laces in relatively simple strings around the entire pint glass. Aroma is lightly biscuity, in the realm of shortbread with sugar. Mouthfeel is light, carbonation active and lively. Comes of as a bit blandly sweet at first, light brown sugar with a touch of graininess. Some interesting hop tang late, has some German minty-leafy Tetang qualities that are interesting. but its brief, and the brew finishes a little too broadly sweet without the attenuation point I kind of like in an Alt. I would like to try this side by side with the old Alt Fall seasonal, I have nostalgiac memories of that one, but I like to see how memory and beer in your face really compare.

As a resident of the Twin Cities, I am quite familiar with Summit beers. This is their first offering that I am less than enamoured with. The color is the most attractive feature of this beer-a pleasant dark amber. At it's best, it has a sweet nuttiness that can be described as inoffensive. Compared to their other beers, it is relatively flavorless. Perhaps it is meant as an entry-level beer to craft beer tastes, in which case it is alright, but not a beer one with more sophisticated tastes would seek out. If this is their original formula, it's just as well that they replaced it with their Oktoberfest.

Nice dark copper color, with a head that didn't last too long (this beer was served rather cold. Smell was toasty and sweet, with carmel malts and chocolate tones dominating. Taste also has some nice carmel flavors, toasty, bready, and sweet, very rich and well rounded. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, I don't know about this as an Altbier, but it still is good. Wanna bottle it, Summit?

Found this at a couple of restaurants during a brief visit home last week. Glad to see Summit introducing new beers, although I hope they get more adventurous in the future. Amber pours a clear garnet topped by small, faintly-tan head. Aroma is subdued, with mostly sweetish malt and a hint of hops. Taste features sweetish malt with small fruity accents. Lightly charred/toasted quality followed by light hop bitterness. Good balance. Light-medium body with a grainy to dry feel. Not bad and a nice session beer. Went nicely with a rose sauce calzone.

Burnt orange…clear….nice frothy head…aroma is very light…mainly faint graininess….dryish taste….german-like malt backing….body is medium…..very dry finish…

My least favorite Summitt offering to date....just seemed to lack any special qualities and isn't my idea of a session beer.

I am sampling an unlabeled bottle from the Monk courtesy of BIF 20. Team Sinister rules!
Beer is poured into a pint glass at room temperature.
The brew pours a clear mahogany color with 2 cm of creamy orangish white tightly packed head foaming up nicely.
The head recedes with large craters forming on the surface and along the edges of the glass.
Aroma is caramel and toffee with a bit of graininess as well.
First sip reveals a lite body with average carbonation that is rather tingly.
Flavor is mild but again toffee and caramel mix and allow just a hint of grassy hops on the finish. Very smooth, clean and easy to drink. Quite a quaffable brew!

12 oz bottle with no label provided to me by feloniousmonk. Apparently this is in a pre-production tester phase. My vote is to go ahead with production.

Pours a one-finger cream-colored head of fine bubbles that hang around quite a while. The beer is a crystal clear orange-caramel color. The smell is wet sweet with caramel and a hint of nut. Perhaps some chocolate, too. Taste is caramel sweet with some Fuller's ESB character. Another taste reveals a dry hoppy start with an iron twange that bleeds into oranges. Between the oranges and iron is when the caramel is most prevalent and it's a nice transition between the three flavors. About this time in the taste, I tasted apricots and a gentle honey. I get chocolate upon the swallow and a caramel and orange in the aftertaste. Later tastes, as the beer has warmed, aren't wet sweet, they're more dry, but not rough dry. Decent lacing on the inside of the glass, md light body, and mildly carbonated. This beer was enjoyable and went down easily.

Although it's only commercially available on draft, I'm reviewing a sample bottle of this new beer, provided to me by a brewery representative. Perhaps my opinion will be different as I review as I drink, rather than transcribe scribbled notes from a visit to a pub.

Bright amber color, almost copper, with a big, but quickly disappearing, beige head.
Aroma is sweet and malty, a fruity thing with a very minor play from hops.
Taste is smooth and clean, fully flavorful, finishing dryly. Medium bodied, crisp and tasty. there's a nice texture here, a bit of grit that hangs on the mouth, and I like it.
Not sure how they tweaked the old Summit Altbier recipe to make this, my beer memory doesn't stretch that far back, but I do like this.
In fact, I like this bottle better than the several pints I've downed at area pubs.
Go figure that out.

I had this one on-tap at Summit Brewing's Amber Release Party.
The beer is billed by some as a revisit of Summit's Alt beer that went off the market a few years ago. Never having tried the Alt, I can't compare it in that way. It was red-brown in appearance with a tan head that faded quickly - part of that may be attributable to the plastic cup it was served in.

Aroma was grainy. Taste was good, a bit acidic - pretty well balanced, more malt than hops, with a nice finish. Mouthfeel was pretty good - not to too thin, not "chewy." Drinkability was rated good as my three beer tickets disappeared rather quickly.

Overall I liked this beer and will look for it on tap during its limited engagement.