Santa Cruz Mountain Amber Ale

On tap. Slightly hazy amber with an off-white head. Very discreet caramel notes in the nose. Medium body, sweetish roasted malt and caramel. Hardly any bitterness. 090709

From tap at the brewpub. Pours almost clear and golden orange to amber with a small white head. Light toffeish aroma. Sweet caramel malty flavoured, vague butterish to the toffeish flavours. Ends roasted caramelish and sweet.

Bomber poured a clear reddish amber with a lasting amber head. Aromas of carmel, butterscotch, earthiness and fruiottiness. Palate was light bodied and crisp with a thin sharp finish. Flavors of carmel, butterscotch and a strange fruittiness with a crisp thin sharp finish. This is the second beer(Dread Brown) in a row I’ve had from this brewery that’s had weird flavor profiles.

Draft at the brewery. OK, so here’s the deal with every beer I had here: buttery. Adjust the color and basic flavor component to match the beer otherwise, and that pretty much wraps it up. This had the overall character of caramel candy. (#3583, June 2009)

This 22 oz bottle came from the local Eureka Natural Foods. I have been somewhat unimpressed with Santa Cruz Mountain beers so far but this was a new one so I decided to give it a try. Big mistake. It poured a cloudy orange to brown with almost no head and therefore no lacing. The nose of caramel and rotten fruit was quite unpleasant. The mouthfeel is totally flat and thin. The flavor is even worse than the aroma with all sorts of really odd nuances. I am not sure what is wrong here but this was undrinkable. I will rate it based on what I got and wait and see if maybe some future rater can explain things, but based on this bottle this should be avoided at all cost.

Aromas of caramel, and some hops. Smooth finish but kind of flat in mouthfeel.

On tap at the brewery tasting room. Brown amber color with a beige fluffy head. Aromas of caramel, bread crust, and slightly sour/rotting fruits. Flavor is similar. I don’t think this is a quality control problem, I just think it’s a by product of the fermentation of organic ingredients. I’ve had several organic beers from different breweries that have all had weird off-flavors. This is no exception. Mouthfeel is a bit flat and a bit thin.

Pours a good-looking orange-amber with fluffy tan head. Interesting aroma--fruity pungence that is hard to pin down. Prune juice and pineapple and Hawaian punch. Flavor is similarly interesting and complex, hard to decipher. Juicy fruit burst on the finish. Perhaps juniper and raspberry sourness on finish. Rather distasteful.