Otter Creek Hickory Switch Smoked Amber Ale

Formerly brewed at Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Smoked
Middlebury, Vermont USA

bottle. Bottled 09/21/01. Aroma: BBQ potato chips, malt, and a bit of caramel. The aroma makes me a little apprehensive about how this is going to taste. Appearance: Very dark red, almost bordering on brown. No head to speak of. Flavor: There is a little hickory smokiness, but the main flavor is malt roastiness. A little bit of caramel flavor...and not much else. Flavors are weak. Palate: Medium-light bodied and watery. Carbonation seemed a little low, as well. Overall: Not good. I’m hoping the fact that this bottle is a couple years old has something to do with it. Weak, watery, and without distinction.

tap at RFD. more roast than smoke...very much not a rauchbier style, which is what i was expecting. black, slight head. medium body, malty flavors balanced mostly by acrid roast. pretty mediocre.

Dark redish brown hazy with a thin head. The aroma is malty with a bit of caramel and a smaller bit of smoked and an even smaller bit hickory, so small in fact, I dont smell it. The flavor of this is also just not good. It lacks anything consistent to make a taste interesting and has a funny aftertaste. The only other smoked ale Ive really has was Rouge’s....which was like 8 years out of date. And it wasnt much worse, it even smelled better.

The concept of a smoked american amber ale sounds good. Too bad this beer does not deliver what its name promises. Watery think weak and a little metallic. Not the best beer I've ever had. Flavor evaporates. which is good and bad.

Medium-brown, medium head, clear. Smoked sausage aroma is quite nice; flavor on the other hand is quite dull. Smoke present all the way through, but thin and bland and the smoky bitterness isn’t counterbalanced by much of anything. Fairly watery; not OCs worst, but I’m really glad I got just one bottle for under $1.50; I don’t feel TOO ripped off.

I don’t get it. I keep trying this, keep hating it and yet keep trying it every fall. The smokiness is just unsettling, maybe because of the Hickory in lieu of say Beechwood. Just gives it too much ’burnt kielbasa’ flavor. The malts aren’t bad they are hidden and only evident when really warm. I’ll try it again next year.

Good Gawd, this stuff is awful! I have never had a respectable import like Kaiserdom, but I am sure it is better than this. Tastes like a bad bock beer with liquid smoke drops added to it. Regardless, the stuff is a good seller.