Angel City Ale

Brewed by Angel City Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Torrance, California USA

12oz bottle-pours a foamy, dissipating off white head an gold/amber color. Aroma is sweet medium malt, secondary earthy/spicy hops. Taste is sweet medium malt, slight peat, secondary earthy/spicy hops. OK carbonation.

Bottle: Pellucid amber, light head and lacing. Nose of light malt, caramel and some vague lack of character, like a black hole or a shadow. The flavor is lightly tart, metallic and noticeable bleak in the body. The finish is watery. Eh, better than some of their other beers in that it’s not horribly infected. Drinkable is a virtue I recon.

This amber ale pours a amber brown color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is malty, fruity and sweet. A medium to full bodied amber. Malts are caramel and toffee, slightly sweet. Hops are a touch citrusy. Lots of non-sweet malts in this beer, kind of refreshing for an amber. Lots of malts flavor. Nice carbonation. WOW, not sure I would ever say this but this is a very drinkable amber. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and dry. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

This beer has an earthy malty aroma. It smells very sweet. It looks unfiltered, and to me it looks more like an IPA, than what you would usually think of an amber. The flavor is some caramel malt, some earthy hops, and then some sourness. It was highly carbonated and had a medium body. I know that this brewer won California homebrewer of the year twice, and this is exactly what this beer is. A homebrew.

Malty nutty caramel aromam with just the slightest tinge of hoppiness. Sweet honey and toasted malts, creamy and mellow with a nice clean mouthfeel. Decent and easy to drink.

(22 oz bottle: $2.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) This exemplifies the type of amber I really don’t like. Sugary sweet, caramely, and very floral. The caramely malt is mostly just sweet, lacking any real quality or depth. Mild bitterness from the hops, but the floral character is bordering on unpleasant for my tastes. However, the aftertaste is indeed unpleasant to me, especially after drinking several ounces; that floral hoppiness just camps out on my tongue, blah! The nose is also sweet and floral, but both characteristics show less fortitude. Instead, the semi-dry caramel maltiness is able to assert itself and balance the nose out some. Body is light-medium, edging toward medium, but still seems a bit thin for an amber. Standard amber colored body shows near-perfect clarity. The off-white head rises to about a quarter inch before fading rapidly to a thin sheen. No lacing. So far, my least favorite of the Angel City brews, and that includes the infected Dunkel I had a few days ago. I simply don’t enjoy the sugary caramel maltiness or the choice of super-floral hops. I’m sure this amber will appeal to many, but I’m sorry, I just hate it.

A great nose and quite flavorful. Highly malted, which blends nicely with the hops that are bigger than expected.

Bottle: Reddish caramel, thick haze, thin fizzy off-white head, spotty lacing.   Soft malty nose, seems as if it also might be a tad sour or tart.   Pale fruit skin is slightly noticeable.   Subtle sour maltiness at start, not hop oriented at all.   Minor sweetness, but just as much tartness, almost lactic like sourness.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate.   Slight graininess at the finish.   Fairly clean, lighter example of the style with an interesting pale fruit skin and sour touch.   Thanks Jordan!