Peak Organic Amber Ale

Peak Organic Brewing Company
Brewed at Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Portland, Maine USA

I’m not really big on amber beers. Still, this one poured a nice orangey-brown, with a big fluffy head. Smelt of biscuits and toffee. Taste was a decent balance of malts and hops, with the hop accents being subdued. Yeast provided a dirty aftertaste, sort of like Fat Tire from the bottle.

My general sense of disappointment with organic beers continued with this one. Taste and mouthfeel exhibited roughness and flavors that were reminiscent of cigarette tobacco and smoke. Every time I took a sip I was reminded of kissing a smoker or getting too near a dirty ashtray, somewhat ironic for a beer that is "organic." However, I don’t drink craft beer to drink irony, so I didn’t think highly of the experience. The cap popped off with some force, like the beer was very pressurized. And it poured into my glass nicely enough, with an abundant sticky head and a clear-but-not-brilliant body. There was a caramel malt smell with some sweaty-sock smell, which was not unpleasant and a bit of citrus. Flavor was very different - I got a lot of tobacco flavor and some smoke and caramel malt, which combined with a very rough mouthfeel gave me the kissing-a-smoker sensation I alluded to above. I would not recommend this beer. I bought this bottle (which was date-coded June 2008 - and a sincere thank you to the Peak brewers for providing an easy to understand expiration date) from Woodman’s in Oak Creek.

12 oz bottle from BevMo-pours a thin retaining off white head and amber color. Aroma is medium malt-caramel, secondary (English) flat/citrus hops. Taste is medium malt-caramel, secondary (English) flat/citrus hops. Dry. Good effervescence.

Amber with thin white head. Nice hoppy nose with caramel & honey in there too. Medium palate with a semi-dry citric hop finish. Better than expected though it was a little cardboard tasting.

Bottle. Poured a cloudy amber body with thin head. Aroma is caramel, and sweet malt. Flavor is caramel and toasted malt, light hops. Flavor is low profile and a little off but still decent.

cool orange red color taste is hoppy and bitter. with a dry finish smells of hops but nothing special here

translucent brown, tan head, nice lacing. whiff of mud and hops. the flavor is the same mud and hops i detected in the aroma. finishes bitter and dry. the only thing i took away from this tasting was mud & hops.

Bottle. Amber color, offwhite head. Milky chocolate aroma, fruity and with some vanilla. Chocolate flavor, rather milky, roasted notes. Quite mild finish with hops adding balance to the beer.