Drakes Amber Ale

Brewed by Drakes Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
San Leandro, California USA

12 fl oz bottle. Pours clear and golden orange with a small and slowly collapsing off-white head. Light fruity and roasted caramelish malt aroma. Light breadish malt flavour. Roasted caramel and light bitterness into the far finish.

From the Jug at the GABF, Colorado Convention Center 13/10/2007 Slightly rich malt aroma. Golden coloured hoppy and a little spicy with some bitterness in a crisp malt finish.

Hazy medium brown color with a creamy beige head. Good head retention and lacing. Bready malts with a chocolatey tinge. Also some toast and caramel. Flavor has some cocoa and toast with lighter orange and butter notes. Sort of earthy and maybe a bit vegetal. Nice heft to the body but not a very clean mouthfeel. Reasonably drinkable.

Bottle. Pours with a voluminous, light brown, creamy head. Hazed amber body. Great lace. Aroma of toffee, crystal malt, light hops. Taste is nutty and woody with a bit of caramel. Slightly metallic. Fizzy.

A- Pours a very cloudy and hazy dark orange and amber hue, the head is a nice layer of white pillowy froth, big thick lacing on the glass S- Aroma is roasted and caramel malts, pine hops punch through the malts, some sweet fruits and nuts, nice earthy almost dirt-like scents, some pepper and alcohol T- Initial taste is mostly caramel and earthy malts which flows to floral and fruit hops and finishes with dry, spicy bitterness that fades quickly M- Medium-bodied with a thick watery texture and dialed-up, biting carbonation D- Pretty smooth and easy drinking at 6%abv, I don’t have much to say about this beer, nothing horrible but nothing great, overall a solid amber offering.

Thin head of fine bubbles. Good carbonation though. Sweet caramel aroma with some dark fruit and molasses. Looks and smells like a nice english barleywine. Color is a murky mahagony brown. Sweet flavor with lots of roasted grains and plenty of malt for body. Pretty thick and chewey. Some earthy and peaty notes in there also. You up the alcohol content on this brew and you have yourself a decent barleywine. More raisins and prunes. Finishes oily and roasty with more lingering earthy notes. Very surprised with this brew. Plesantly surprised.

From a 12oz Bottle. Mostly hazy, brown sugar colored pour with a huge head of fizzy beige. Unusually high level of carbonation. Estery nose of pear skins and apple. Malty notes of bread crust and biscuit lay beneath. Too estery for my tastes. Light bodied, heavily carbonated mouthfeel with a dry, seltzery texture. Flavors of biscuit and caramel malt, followed by a bold hop bitterness; in fact, orval-like hop bitterness. Tastes suspiciously bretty, contributing to a funky earthy quality that dominates the finish. Dirty.

From six pack that cost $8.99 at BevMo in Vacaville, CA this poured a cloudy brown with red tinges, and raised a fat off-white heasd and good lacing. Nose is of roasted malts and some floral hops. Light and fizzy mouthfeel. Flavor is dominated by the chocolate and there was not much in the finish. I was not very fond of this, but then that is true of most ambers. I have five bottle to give away.