Alaskan Amber

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Altbier
Juneau, Alaska USA

Serve in Kölsch/Altbier

A very enjoyable all around amber. I liked this one alot. Goes down very easily and is available in alot of places.

Draft at O’Briens in San Diego. Slightly caramel aroma with metallic hints. Slightly sweet notes in the nose as well. Transparent amber/mahogany color with virtually no head. Mildly sweet, sugary, creamy beer. Roasty and malted. Nice finish. Not extraordinary, but not poor either.

UPDATED: DEC 1, 2007 First time I had this beer, I wasn’t too keen on it and thought it was a basic amber ale. Second tasting (June ’06 rerate) was much better. Usual appearance, good initial head and good lacing, amber colored (not as deep a copper as I like in an alt). Malts were mildly sweet and moderately rich: nutty, bready, very light caramel. Hops were bittering, nicely done. Unfortunately, a little bit too much fruitiness sticking around in the aftertaste, leaving this a bit sloppy for the best of the alts, yet a good stateside example. Third tasting, 3/07, a little too malty, although the comments stand. Re-rate on draft, 11/07: A product that is continually slipping, too imbalanced to the sweet side to be a stellar altbier. Sweet, slight breadiness, caramel, in need of more toasty nutty notes and more balancing hops to be a better example of the style. Appearance within style was a bit weak too. No lager crispness anywhere in this product.

Bottleneck at CircusCircus. Dark amber with a beige head. aroma moderate malty, cara mel, roasted, and hoppy. Flavor moderate sweet and bitter, long duration. Medium body.

On tap at the Skidmore Fountain open-air market in Portland, 7 August 2004. Wouldn’t have guessed it was an altbier, but that makes sense. The body was quite malty with layers of caramel and touches of toast, but grassy, spicy (almost peppery) hops provided a nice complement to the malts. Good stuff, even though it was served out of a plastic cup for $5.

UPDATED: APR 26, 2007 tap... came out a clear ruby red with little to no head. Sweet malty aroma, flavors of malt, caramel and something else sweet that reminded me of twizzlers. Not enough hop backing as I would hope.

Pours a deep dark clear orange color. Sweet malty aroma, rich taste that ends slightly sweet. Much better than your average amber ale.

Reminds me a little of fat tire. Excellent aroma and color (dark copper). Not as malty as FT, but a little sweeter. The flavor lingers. A good beer, but a little pricey.