Angel City Ale

A great nose and quite flavorful. Highly malted, which blends nicely with the hops that are bigger than expected.

Wow this is really good! Being a local to the area I have seen this beer on the shelves for years and figured it was just another here today gone tomorrow crap-ass beer. Well I am pleasantly wrong. Pours a deep hazy orange colour with a volumous off-white head. Massive malt aroma with an equally pungent hop aroma with some piney notes. Sweet caramel malts, mild bitterness, pleasant lingering aftertaste. Dare I say this is one of the best amber’s I have had?

Bottle. This one poured a really nice amber color. Nice foamy head that lasted not too long. Aroma is very malty, sweet smelling. Nice malty flavor as well, slightly sweet, with a bit of hops coming in at the finish. Could easily drink quite a few of these.

This is my first experience with--rather amazingly--L.A.’s only local micro. Yes, this is definitely a malt-oriented Amber as opposed to a hoppy west-coast APA, and it’s a very good example. Its first impression out of the bottle is superb, with a very inviting aroma which is clean and malty sweet, above a harmonious noble-hop background--a reminder that there is a lot more to the world of beer aromas than floral American hops and spicy Belgian alcohols. (Not that there is anything wrong with either.) While extremely drinkable, I find the flavor and body of Angel City Ale to be a little on the thin side, albeit very clean and well balanced; this is almost a great beer. While not a beer anyone would twitch over, I can easily see myself building a classic pub session around this one, especially if served on draft as this beer clearly begs. It would also be an ideal starter craft beer for anyone seeking to move beyond fizzy, tasteless macros. A notch below its rough San Francisco analog, the venerable Anchor Steam, this is still a beer that we here in Los Angeles can be proud to call our own.

Jumpin Jimminy, that's a one malty meatball!!!! The aroma comes across as a helluva load of malt and vanilla...it literally reminded me of standing over a 50 pound bag of malt at a brewery and smelling that bag. It pours a murky and slightly cloudy orange center with a dark yellow outer core and a pearly white head. The taste is..big surprise..malty!!!! Its heavily malty, with a hint of vanilla, peachy bitterness, and a hint of sour coming almost from an overdose of malt. This is a damn good beer..i mean i love sweet malty beers...but the fact that its overly malty is what kills it...too much of a good thing kills a great beer. Nice carbonation level, dry, but not terribly so mouthfeel...just needs a slightly hoppier state and this is a 4.0 or more beer.