Leinenkugels Classic Amber

Brewed by Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Premium Lager
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

Bottle. Pours a copper gold with a small frothy white head. Not much on the nose but caramel malt and raisin. Decent spotty lacing on the glass. Medium mouthfeel with a roasted malt and a nice dry finish. Easy to drink a decent lager from leinenkugel.

Bottle. Pours golden orange with a thin head. Sweet malty aroma, maybe a hint of honey. The flavor has some sweetness and earthy straw like notes. Not bad.

This beer pours a very golden copper. It has an extremely clean scent with a mild head. The nose is of rubber bands! For real, weird... Taste is clean and mild. Malty, crisp, and more of a lager of sorts. This is not a good example of an amber. Weak!

Bottle, Kalamazoo. Pale yellow colour, white head. Aroma has some grassy hops, caramel. Flavour of caramel malts and hops.

Leinies tends to underperform, so perhaps my expectations were lowered to the point that I find this better than it really is. That said, I find this to be a perfectly drinkable, enjoyable amber. A nice malty (if a tad thin) nose. A balanced flavor between the malt and hops (again, a tad thin). It’s hardly the best I’ve ever had, but it strikes me that this sort of beer, which most BMC drinkers could at least consider to be a "normal" style, would be a very good step up from the swills of the world. My only real complaint is the price. Something like this should fall between the BMC price and, say, the price of Bells Amber. But it doesn’t. It costs the same as Bells (thus, my hesitation to get it, until I saw it on sale). For the price, you can do much better, but the beer itself isn’t all that bad.

Smooth amber with nice blend of malt and hops. Flavors of honey and caramel are evident as well as a nice malty aroma.

On tap at U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago. White Sox beat the Jays 10-2, and Alexi Ramirez hit a grand slam while I was in the bathroom. This was probably the best thing on tap at the field, and yeah, while it wasn’t the best beer I’ve ever had, it’s one of the better offerings from Leinenkugel’s in years (that I can get in my area). I had it in a white cup, so I didn’t see the color. Nose was citrussy hops, with a bit of sweetness. Taste was smooth, a little sweet, ending with a little bite. A decent offering from Chippewa Falls. Thanks, boys, more like this one!

Bottle from Ron’s. Pours dark straw with nose of grainy malt, mild hopcitrus, brown sugar, with a malty flavor, some hops, citrus, and earthy notes. Light palate and not complex.