Karl Strauss Amber Lager

Brewed by Karl Strauss Brewing Company
Style: Vienna
San Diego, California USA

small light amber head; sweet malt aroma with a very slight bit of hop; sweet caramel taste, reminiscent of berry (?); quite fizzy; the finish is sweet with almost no hop.

Extremely caramelly and honey sweet. Comes up short on the hop end, with next to no bitterness. Some malt present, but the brew is somewhat lacking in depth; could’ve been less sweet and more full-bodied.

Draught Medium, quite white head over pale amber beer with metallic shine. Cookies, ambrée malts, very lager-like indeed Toast, cornflakes, orange - this is a true breakfast beer. Speculoos malts. Light body, quite some slickness. Very ordinary Vienna, but drinkable.

Pretty strong offering for a lager, sort of on the thin side. Very spicy and piney with strong roasted malts. On tap at Karl Strauss.

Bottle courtesy of RiversideAK. Pours copper with a thin white head. Smells of citrus and tea. Tastes of caramel, sugar, oranges, touches of honey.

Not much aroma; a bit of malt. This not what I like. It seems a bit soured or lactic. A small amount of hops in the finish.

On tap at Chili’s. Served freezing cold into a frozen mug - might have been the coldest beer I’ve ever had. Amber in color with a decent size head that left a thin layer of foam, but I had to keep wiping the condensation off the side of the glass to see what it looked like. Not much in terms of aroma, probably due to how cold this thing was, but I could sense some caramel and biscuits. Flavors came through the iciness a bit more, and malts dominated with a subtle bread flavor. Medium-bodied, lots of, maybe too much, carbonation. Despite the presentation, there was enough here to suggest that it might be a decent beer if served at a reasonable temperature. Did I mention it was served cold?

Surprised by the reviews. I had it at LAX, and have been trying to get some of it ever since.