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Santa Cruz Mountain Amber Ale

Percentile
23
overall

bottling
unknown

on tap
unknown

distribution
unknown

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RatingsAverageScoreABVStyle PctlServe in
302.72/5.02.73/5.05.4%20.5English pint, Shaker
Commercial Description:
Our Amber is an all grain, close fermented, lightly hopped, handcrafted ale. We steep and sparge the freshly milled grain, in a slow and deliberate process using both a mash tun and a lauter tun, before pumping it over to our kettle. Once in the kettle, we bring it slowly to a boil and add hops in incremental stages, for bittering, aroma and flavor. While in the kettle, the wort must be carefully attended too as it threatens to boil over. After the boil is complete and all of the hops have been added, the beer is slowly cooled through a water chilled cooler and brought to a perfect temperature for pitching our yeast. After a period in closed fermentation, the ale is passed through a filter into a brightening tank where it awaits packaging. Nothing in our brewery is automated, ensuring that each step in the brewing process is hand crafted. We use a hand selected blend of organic malts with a primary base of Briess organic 2-row brewers malt. The Briess 2-row malt is known for it's smooth and mild qualities. We add top-secret amounts of caramel malts to give the ale a richer flavor and colour. The results are clear. Hops selecting in our recipe formulation is difficult since there are so many amazing organic hops to choose from. Again, we use a top-secret blend of organic whole hops in our Amber Ale but we favor an aromatic beer so we use an age old method of 'dry-hopping' - adding a final 'tea-bag' of organic Kent Goldings in the brightening stage. Organic Kent Goldings hops are grown in Belgium from the original rootstock and are known to be one of the finest hops in the world. Check the results for yourself! Stop in and try Santa Cruz Mountain Amber Ale for yourself. We have a tasting bar.
 Most Recent Top Raters Highest Ratings Who's Rated This?  
 SDalkoholic (1195), Chula Vista, California, USA
3.5 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/57/104/514/20
Nov 15, 2006  
Nose is like a pale ale with hiding malt and some bread aroma. Color is a copperish brown with thick patch of foam. The amber is okay and mildly hopped with a puny caramle malt backbone which allows the hop to really stand out. Thats actually how i like my ambers with just a tad bit more hops overpowering them but this beer is just average and okay. This is however a very quaffable beer to throw back. Aftertase is bread and oat.


 AlabastorJones (765), San Francisco, California, USA
3.3 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/103/57/104/513/20
Nov 7, 2006  
yeasty caramel nose, sort a heavily yeasted barley wine-esque flavor, sweet and andy like, apple cider, an interesting amber indeed, yes yes indeed


 Ernest (4491), Boulder, Colorado, USA
3.3 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/56/104/513/20
Aug 28, 2007  
Bottle. Head is initially small, frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is medium to dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, cookie), lightly hoppy (apricot), with notes of sour apple, autumn leaves, nutmeg, oak, cherry, light note of band-aid. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Medium to full body, creamy/velvety texture, lively carbonation. Nice mouthfeel and actually not too badly balanced, but the aroma is VERY odd for the style...definite sour and wild tones made me think it was infected prior to tasting. Not an unpleasant amount/type of tartness, though, but man...the aroma is definitely more in line with a rustic biere de garde than an American amber. A loony sample, perhaps. More alcohol evident than the 5.4% would suggest. So all in all...weird and difficult to rate, but admittedly not unpleasant. If this is what they were aiming for, I’d probably rate a bit higher, but somehow I don’t think that’s the case.


 bhensonb (4287), Woodland, California, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
5/104/56/104/513/20
Sep 5, 2007  
Bomber. Nice aroma of malt and ripe fruit. Amber color with a white head that ringed. A bit thin in body, with very mild carbonation. The flavor is caramel malt with a fruity accompaniment. The finish is relatively dry, and there is a decent amount of bitter. Could be a malty IPA.


 bb (2919), Martinez, California, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/104/56/103/513/20
Jul 29, 2006  
Bottle. Bronxe color with a beige head. Light malt and citrus aroma. Big caramel flavor with backing citrus. Richer bodied. Lingering caramel/slight roast malt. Good malt complexity.


 Crit (2405), New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/56/103/513/20
Jan 28, 2007  
Cloudy amber,lasting beige head.Peachy grapefruit nose.Lots of carmel malt in the palate mild to medium hops.


ipe (5), USA
does not count click to see why this rating of Santa Cruz Mountain Amber Ale does not count
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
5/104/56/104/513/20
May 9, 2006  
Rich, full-bodied amber. Organic hops deliver a sharp crispness, but not as pronounced as the India. Good with food!


 jake65 (1725), Williston, North Dakota, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/57/103/512/20
May 30, 2007  
Bottle: Dark copper color with a small white head. Nose of fruit with a dry, wheaty kick. Tastes better than the nose with dry wheat, floral bitters, earth tones, and some fruity sweetness. Not too bad. Thanks Buckdich for sharing.



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