Ithaca Amber Ale

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Amber Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

12 oz bottle. Medium copper, quite clear; massive forever-lasting head...gushing, in fact (infection? uh oh). Light grapefruity aroma with a bit of chewy woody malt. Odd but interesting flavor -- cherry cola comes to mind, and a bit of oakiness, grapefruit near the end. Medium body, too sweet and odd overall...doesn’t really work though I give it points for creativity.

Starts off with a fruity, citrusy sweet aroma. The appearance is dark orange with a good sized white head - good lacing. Has a hoppy - citrusy bite to it - more akin to a California PA than an upstate NY amber. HInts of caramel mellow out the hoppines a bit - but still a litle too hoppy for an amber. Palate is a bit tonque numbing. Better than other Ithacas I have tried thus far though.

A top rate Amber Ale, good hop floral nose and bite, malts quite evident, great color and a decent head and lace.

Malty/fruity/alcohol aroma. Hazy orange. Toffee or butterscotch in a sturdy bitterish ale. I had a very old bottle of this and it stood up very well to cellaring. Rerate with a fresh bottle: After sampling the other Ithacas, which weren't very stellar, I was shocked to see that I'd given this a 3.9 in the cellared bottle. Turns out not to be that far off -- Ithaca's strong point is their fruity aroma. Hops were more evident in the fresh bottle. I downgraded the flavor -1, the palate -1 and the overall -2, but it's still a good, balanced and drinkable brew.

Fairly dark amber colour with a perfect sized light tan head - spot on for the style! Aroma consists of hop pellets, mushrooms and a bit of yeast - ODD! Medium-bodied; Hoppy taste with some astringent characteristics and a strong malt background. Aftertaste shows almost nothing but a mild hop and malt taste. Overall, about average for the style. Not great, nor bad! I bought this twelve ounce bottle from Beers of the World in Rochester, New York and sampled it on 2-October-2003.

Aroma is vile. Smells like vomit. Pours a cloudy copper/amber with a huge off-white head. Watery with sweetness in the middle. Watery finish with puke aftertaste. This is hideous.

Outstanding. I've had some American Ambers that were dry-hopped out of any possibility of sensing other aroma components, but not this. Nice and floral, good hop bitterness right away and throughout, with the nicest sweet malty bits also along for the ride. Color (redder than expected) and appearance, including a nice medium compact head, are fantastic. Jayme98, thanks a million!

A good enough amber ale. Beautifully clear golden appearance, with a good white head that fade too fast. Sort of a smallish tasting amber, in that it has nice balance but not much hops or caramel or malt. Nice balance also of floral aromatic hoppiness at the beginning and bitter hop finish, but nothing remarkable. My Ithaca friends say that there is high variability from month to month in Ithaca Beer Company's beers, so maybe this explains the greater enthusiasm of some of the earlier reviewers.