Oak Creek Amber Ale

Brewed by Oak Creek Brewing Co.
Style: Amber Ale
Sedona, Arizona USA

Bottle. Pours clear amber with a thin and fading off-white head. Light aroma with some toffee and pine, similar taste. Pretty unremarkable. It’s sort of like their Nut Brown, but add some hops and take away some malty flavor.

12-oz. Thanks, BitBucket! Pours dark burnished amber with a thin, sloppy grayish rim of foam. Sweetish, piney nose. Medium, slightly creamy body. Mid-palate very close to neutral. Some caramel, some brown bread, some sweet pine needle hop...but not much of any of those things, really. Neutral finish. Too polite to stake a claim for itself.

Murky and dark amber with floaties. Sweet malt base (caramel, toast, light nuts). Earthy, bready, kind of yeasty and slightly musty. Mild bitterness. OK, but boring.

Pours an amber color with a healthy head. Did not enjoy at all. Too sweet..something was off.

Bottle. Pours a dark amber with a minimal head. Nose is brown sugar and malt. Palate is pretty much the same… sweet likr honey. Thin mouth feel and minimal lacing. Meh, ok I guess. Better than the mass produced crap any day of the week.

Pours a hazy copper with lots of rising bubbles, some fine sediment, and a sizable, frothy, ecru head that diminishes gradually, leaving no lace. The nose is an unexpected, sweet, anise note up-front, like black jelly beans, followed by a touch of a caramel malt note; very candy-like. Light to medium-bodied and slick with a sweet, clean finish. Wow! This is unlike any other amber that I’ve had: a sweet, rounded malt front, black licorice (much like on the nose, only more pronounced), and a light mint note, in support. Hops play absolutely no role whatsoever in the flavor profile. I tend to dislike ambers unless they pack a solid hop bitterness to support their malt bill. I also tend to get a distracting metalic note from many beers in this style. I get neither from this brew, and surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. It’s fairly sweet but very quaffable. Scanning the other reviews for this beer, I have to wonder if Oak Creek has an issue with consistency or their bottling line. The reviews are all over the place, and I found this one to be far better than its score would indicate (a rarity for me). I’ll have to have the in-laws, in Sedona, send me some more of this one to see for sure.

Smells like an amber ale missing the hops. Amber/caramel color. Starts off sweet and dry, ends malty and bland, like its missing the hops. Its pretty heavily carbonated and not smooth on the palate. They claim the following: "balanced by medium hop bitterness", "an all malt beer that is naturally carbonated", but I didnt see either of those elements.

Clear amber with no head. Mild floral and malt-honey aroma notes. Honey, carmel, and very sweet flavour. Bland and sweet finish.