Premium Amber Ale
Amarcord Birra Artigianale Italiana

 

Swing-top bottle poured into a Gulden Draak tulip. Pours a light to medium orange amber. Very active carbonation on opening with a huge white medium density head that dissipated slowly leaving light lacing. Aroma of bready and sweet malt with a slight mineral aroma. Flavor of caramel and bready malt, light fruit and faint Belgian yeast. A somewhat dry finish with a hint of citrus and non-herbal bitterness. Medium bodied. The flavor reminds me of a somewhat watered down Belgian pale ale. Flavor is unusual, but underwhelming, a bit surprising for such a robust ABV ale. Tastes good, but would improve with a bit more intense flavor. An unusual flavor structure for an amber ale, glad I tried it.

This is a fairly simple, one-dimensional beer, but it has some good character and is basically enjoyable. I would note that I do not think "American Amber" is the best category for this as I do not think it remotely fits stylistically or is intended to be such a style. it seems to me to be more of an English Strong Ale (vague in itself) and has definite English characteristics, rather like their Pale Ale.

Anyway, this is copper with t thin, off-white head immed. shrinking to a ring and some ugly, viscous bubbles. It does not look good to me.

Aroma is better, strong, very raisiny sweet toasty bread crust and bread with definite, if light, boozy quality like fermented raisin syrup.

Taste is sweet-spicey alcoholic grain and vague fruits, raisiny, a bit meaty and bready. It develops some nice caramelised fruit and grain notes with hints of woody-leafy hop after a little bit, making it a little more well-balanced and interesting. After an uninspiring start, it turns out to be pretty good and I appreciate that complexity increases with this beer, rather than decreasing like some. Feel is nice and drinkability is pretty good.

Pours a fizzy looking light amber color, with an ok white head.

Smells like sweet tea, with some toast, and a hint of alcohol.

Taste is sweet, like sweetened tea. It's also pretty malty, with some caramel, and light bready flavors. Finish has hints of alcohol, and just a bit of mineral hop bitterness.

Mouthfeel is pretty good, starts out with some nice body, but it fades and thins out a bit.

Drinkability is not bad. Goes down easier than the 9.0% ABV suggests. It might be a little sweet for some people tastes, but all in all, to me it comes across as a decent Amber Ale.

Found this new beer at Cost plus. Regularly 4.99 though 3.99 if you are a rewards member. Not too terribly familiar with Italian craft brew so I figured I'd give it a shot (the 9% was enticing too).

Pours a (true to the name/style) pleasant amber with 2 fingers of white foam atop it. Lacing sticks intermittently, head dissipates after ~3 minutes. Not that I really care.

Nose: The wife tells me she is getting a bit of malt and citrus. I tried, but my nose is a little clogged and I ended up with foam up the nostril.

Taste/mf: Typical for an amber, big malt, with a fair suggestion of the alcohol content (9%). A little heavy in terms of body.

All told, this is a pretty uncomplicated example of an amber ale. Its high alcohol content makes it stand out among ambers a bit. At a price point of 3.99 it really isn't too bad at all.