Firepit Amber Ale
Crue Brew Brewery

It's a beauty to look at. Crystal clear deep amber color with a huge, rocky, light tan head. The head falls to chunky rafts with great cling to the glass.

The smell is predominantly caramel-like sweet malty goodness. Overlaid is a bit of citrusy hops, but it's very light and therefore a bit difficult to define.

The taste follows. It's very malt driven, but right at the finish there's a strong hit of resinous and grapefruity hops with a brief wallop of bitterness. The dominate flavors are caramel, sweet bready malt until the hops say hello. The bitter clears the pallet and there's just a hint of dankness which is not a favorite flavor for me but it's reasonable here. Not what I was expecting at all, although I understand reds can be aggressively hopped. The hop smack is really late in the taste. There's a little floral and herbaceous aromatic flavor but it's very faint.

It's a bit above medium in body, a bit creamy feeling, but the bitter clears anything wanting to linger reasonably well. The aromatics linger just a tad.

Overall, I rather like this beer. The way the flavors arrive is interesting with malt dominance up front and the pop of hops on the back end