Fort Collins Common Ground

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: Amber Ale
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Pours a clear, pretty, appetizing amber with a fairly thick, if not too persistent, white head. Aroma has a strong coffee overtone, very unlike what I expect from an amber ale! There are some malty and even fruity hints as well. Flavor is rather like weak iced coffee with some malt flavor and a touch of fruit, mainly apple. Texture is smooth and just a little fizzy. Overall, not too shabby and worth trying if you are into unusual beers.

Bottle. An unusal beer. The coffee aroma and flavor is prominent but not over powering. Was actually balanced well. Color was a pleasant brown color but not black like one might expect with a coffee beer. Quite impressed. Would recommend.

Coffee flavor in an amber, as opposed to a stout/porter is an odd variation on the theme... It’s coppery amber, not black or brown, as I expected. Definate whiff of coffee, with a subtle background note of caramel or toffee. Coffee and caramel in the flavor, and a touch of hop bitterness. Odd, but likeable.

Date: October 24, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Hop City, Atlanta
Appearance: clear copper, creamy off white head, scattered drippy lace
Aroma: sweet caramel malt aroma with a balancing coffee character
Flavor: sweet malt flavor, caramel sweetness, touch of breadyness, balancing coffee, light roasted
Overall: interesting combination of caramel and coffee, a nice change from the coffee stouts
Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ** /4

Bottle. Pours clear amber with an average, creamy off-white head, somewhat lasting with good lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel, cereal, coffee), light hop (herbs), average yeast (dough, earth) with notes of plum and brown sugar. Medium bodied, slick texture, average carbonation, and a chalky finish. Average duration, light sweetness, moderate acidity and bitterness.

Coffee amber is not a normal style. Dark ruby amber orange with a sticky thick lacing off white head. Aroma is roasty but light amber sweetness, caramel. Taste is mild coffee, not roasty, but then thin malty caramel, apple fruitiness. It sorta works but not really.

Interesting amber/copper coloured body with a thinnish tan head - I was expecting darker, but looks fairly good. Aroma of tobacco, malt, coffee, raisins and plums. Medium-bodied; Sharp pungent coffee and malt flavours roam through with a touch of caramel and nuts finishing off the taste. Aftertaste leads more into the sweet and nuttiness aspects and leaves the coffee behind. Overall, not such a successful beer in my mind - more malt and bitterness needed, closer to a porter - but this was interesting to try. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Liquor Outlet in Boonton, New Jersey on 03-October-2009 sampled at home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on 24-October-2009.