Southampton Altbier

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Altbier
Southampton, New York USA

Appearance: Pours a clear, dark amber body with a fizzy white head. Smell: Malty aroma with toffee, bready, and even nutty notes. Taste: Bready maltiness with a toffee-like sweetness. Slight nuttiness. Juicy apple fruitiness jumps in and increases as you near the finish. Mild herbal hop flavor with no more than a slight bitterness. Semi-dry finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: It’ll do if you’re looking for a pleasant, easy-drinking altbier.

Deeply darkened amber, browned orange haze. Dense finger high head of thick, creamy lightly tanned foam sits well before settling to a solid skim always present. Lace glazes the glass with an immense broken sheeting that cobwebs its way down. Aroma is soft and subtle of whole grain bread doughy sweetness and a bit of toasted grassyness. Taste is wholesome and firm with a nice tone of bready malts that favors a tender sweetness with a sliver of dullish fruity apple jam and quick little toasted edge of grains and poof of leafy hops. Nice texture, very wholesome and bready rich with a firm medium/fullish body that holds an exceptional tone and lays out a very fun and subtle crescendo across the palate. A pretty solid Altbier here, and at only 5.1% makes for a decent session beer.

In short: A problematic amber ale.
How: Tap at Holy Smoke BBQ, Mahopac, NY. This re-rate for a fresh 12oz bottle
The look: Clear bronze body topped by a medium off-white head
In long: The repulsive nose is smoky with fecal matters. Fizzy and watery beer with crusty toasted bread. Minimal sweetness is “well balanced” by minimal hopping. Mineral water feeling. Carbonation is too expansive. Taste is grassy and meaty. Dried prunes, fruit cake and greasy buttery grass. This excellent brewery doesn’t need that beer in its lineup. Some beers are well kept secret, this one should be one.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a clear brown with a small white head. Aroma of bread and toffee. Flavor is pretty mild, with hints of roasted malts, nuts. Finish is crisp with a slight hop bitterness. Ok beer.

12oz bottle, no date. Thanks to Colin for this one. Clear reddish with brown highlihgts and a one finger, short lived light beige head. Biscuits and earthy hops are the first things I pick up on in the aroma. Then come some metallic notes and nuts, very light toffee. Nuts and scorched toffee are more dominant in the flavor, but the biscuits are still there as well. Pretty well balanced, though definitely more on the malty sweet side. Mildly bitter semi-dry finish. Moderate carbonation with a light to medium body. Pretty good beer.

11-20-07 bottle
Thin watery brown color with no real head. Subtle yeast hops smell that doesn’t really "rock my world". Crappy, almost tart, taste that leaves me wanting no more.

12 oz. Dark brown with a small, but lasting head. Aroma is delicious caramel and spicy molasses. Flavor is initial big malt blast of sourish caramel and molasses, fades slowly to an earthy-spicy bitterish ending. Palate is light-medium bodied and dry on the finish. Very tasty example of the style.

Bottle courtesy of davehoward
Coppery amber colored clear pour with a greyish head. Sweet slightly tart malt smell. Nice. Almost lightly nutty as well. Smooth creamy mildly sweet and tart maltiness. Very easy drinking, friendly but a bit unique as well. Nice beer in a style I’m fairly unfamiliar with. Thanks Dave!