Amber Sands
Hidden Sands Brewing Company

Pint pour on draught at the brewery. It pours a slightly hazy, orange-amber with a half finger cap of fluffy, ecru-colored foam. The smell includes sweet caramel malt and a whiff of herbal hop bitterness. The taste follows and balances caramel sweetness against dry, earthy malt with hints of herbs and char. This ale has a very nice mouth feel: medium-bodied and very drinkable at 6% ABV. Overall, Amber Sands is a well-crafted and enjoyable Red Ale.

Hidden Sands Brewing Co. "Amber Sands"
16 fl. oz. can without production codes or freshness dating
$3.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Amber Sands has poured a hazy chestnut brown body beneath a rocky head of off-white foam. I'm not sure why it's called "amber". The aroma is mainly grainy, biscuity, and nutty malt although there are hops there. What would I call them? I'm not sure. They're herbal I guess. On to the taste... mmm, it's nicely toasty and just lightly caramelish. The nuttiness and biscuit character remains as well. There's just a light touch of apple-like fruitiness. Now those hops... herbal, leafy, and a hint spicy. It's malty and lightly sweetish upfront but a median bitterness balances it and leads to a dry finish with just a dollop of malt gently fading away amidst longer lingering herbal, leafy, and spicy hops. This is a good beer but I doubt it will get a lot of attention as it's not triple dry-hopped and doesn't have any weird ingredients like peanut butter and cheddar ;) The head unfortunately didn't hold up that well at all, and thus the lacing was limited too. The mouthfeel is gently crisp then smooth with a medium body and moderate carbonation. That's probaby why the head didn't hold up because my glass must be clean as there's lacing left behind. I'll personally take the nicer mouthfeel over the appearance but there are beers that offer both. In the end I find this rather nice. It's not too much of anything, and it's got enough of everything that you're not left wanting. How strong is this? 6%. Well, that kind of hurts it a little bit in that I was thinking of it as a great session ale, but whatever, you could still enjoy a few of these if you kept that in mind and took it a little slower than you normally might.
Review #7,893

A solid amber. Reddish amber with nearly no head. Malty aroma and flavor. Slightly bitter. Feel is good. Overall, tasty and easy drinking.