Sun Valley White Cloud Ale

Brewed by Sun Valley Brewing
Style: Amber Ale
Hailey, Idaho USA

Ah! An American brew that’s not loaded in hops - quite a nice change. Reddish copper brew that poured a very small cap, but with all the fine effervecanse, a small but thick tan cap was retained thoughout the entire glass. Nice messy lacing. The aroma is refreshing with an adequate ammount of roasted malts and caramel with notable fruitness and mild hops. Taste seems pretty good initially but quickly goes bland as it cannot hold its flavour. More caramel malts. I’m not convinced if at the very very end of the taste there is a hint of metallic flavour or alcohol....I can’t decide. Mouthfeel is quite full and smooth. Medium bodied or just below. Finishes with a faint but nice bitterness.

Horribly ugly label looks like a 1950’s ducking hunting magazine. Beer pours pure copper, with a good half-inch creamy cap that lasted the entire brew. Aroma was kind of bla yuck consisting of mild wheatyness and faint metallic hop. Taste seemed to me slightly smoky and had bitterness from some hops but the hops had no flavor, lots of oak in the flavor and the taste seems watered down. This was my first and most likely last brew from Idaho and this was thanks to beercronics parents and they’re many travels.

2/7/09 From the bottle. Aroma is malt forward with moderate caramel and simple, with a moderate, almost noble hop background. Appearance is clear gold with a well maintained white head. Flavor is sweet, but no caramel malt forward, watery, with medium grainy sourness and very low bittering. Mouthfeel is low bodied with a moderate carb texture. Overall, quite weak in all regards, tastes watered down.

Pours red with an off white head. Smells of earth, some tea. Tastes of sweet malt, some hints of spice. Meh!

Draft at Old Boise Brewfest: Pours a lighter amber color with a large white head. Nose is caramel and malt, even a bit earthy. Tastes subdued with light malt presence and kind of sweet. Maybe try a little hops next time?

Tap at brewpub: Amber color with a patchy off-white head. Malty, too malty for an amber. Cola flavors can be picked up in this brew that doesn’t have much of an aroma or appeal to me.

On tap at brewpub. Pours out a light clear amber. Topped with a white head. Not all that great.

NorCal tasting Jan 06 - This was the 5th of 5 Sun Valley beers brought back by a taster. This was beer was okay with me. Nothing too good or too bad with it. An aroma on the small side of tihngs. Nothing really big here, just a sweet caramel aroma. Appearance was brown in color, clear with minimal head. Medium bodied with a clean finish. Flavor was crackers and caramel.