Fat Weasel Ale

Brewed by August Schell Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
New Ulm, Minnesota USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

Bottle. Pours a clear medium gold with a 2 finger white head. Nose is malt and biscuits. Taste is malt, fruity sweetness and a bitter alcohol finish. Light to medium mouth feel. Not very good.

A light malty aroma. Much lighter appearance than I expected. Wow this malty. A bit of alcohol comes through in the finish. Not that good, it just seems too strong.

Bottle. Sweet grassy nose with syrupy corn and slight cereal grains. Some caramel. Golden pour, clear with lots of carbonation and a pretty, dense and lacing rocky off-white head. Taste is malty with a bit of syrup and grain, light nuttiness, somewhat dry. Earthy light bitterness. Medium-full body is almost too crisp, very filling stuff here. Much better than expected.

Bottle. Pour is a clear, golden amber with a minimal head and aromas that are sweet malt with some dough and floral hops. Flavor is straight forward light ale (although it has a bit of a metallic finish to it which is the biggest strike against it). Caramel/biscuit malt presence is the mainstay and the hops presence is there with a bit of a peppery/herbal bite to it... Doesn’t pull together nicely at the end, though, due to the herbal/metallic issues.

Pours from the bottle with a tan colored head that rises to three-fingers in height. The beer is a brilliantly clear, copper color that shows a rich gold hue when held up to the light. The aroma is quit malt focused with notes of biscuit-like malts, toffee and some crushed cracker notes. A touch of fruitiness and a light herbal note round things out for this soft nose.

Lightly sweet tasting and fuller bodied than I was expecting; it coats the mouth a bit and is on the chewy side for a beer that I was expecting to be lower in alcohol. There is also quite a bit more hop flavor and character than I was expecting; this has a solid herbal note to it, a noticeable grapefruit like hoppiness and a solid, lingering bitterness in the finish. Toasty malt note contribute soft caramel flavors, biscuit-like grain notes and a very soft nuttiness. The hop character seems to fade a bit after a while, and it becomes a bit more malt accented. There is a touch of alcohol warming in the finish as well.

Another Trader Joes beer that is far better than I was expecting. The aroma is a bit bland, but this is packed with a surprising amount of flavor; the strength of this beer obviously helps as I was expecting this to be around 4% and not the 7.2% that it is at. Not quite something that I can see myself buying again, but if handed this at a BBQ I would be quite content.

This beer pours a golden body with little head and lacing. Aromas of nectarines and bread.. the mouthfeel is very malty and has a slight hop bitterness. I thought it was a little sour actually.

Ratebeer shows this as an Amber Ale? Really? Right off the bat it’s too light, even for a pale ale. And it’s 7.2%, waaay to high for an amber (4.5 - 6.2%). Anyway, the slight aroma is of generic pale malt with a touch of sweet caramel and fruity esters. The flavor is somewhat nondescript as well. The body is fairly big and the sweetness expected from the big malt bill is nicely offset by hop bitterness. But they forgot the late addition hops to give it flavor and aroma. But hey, at a buck a bottle, it provides a nice buzz. That’s hard to find in today’s beer market with the severe hop shortage and escalating beer prices. But this ain’t an amber ale!

Orange yellow pour with a slight white head. Not much aroma - some fruit with a little bit of hops. Sweet molasses and licorice flavor gives way to bitter hops.