Fischer Amber

Brewed by Heineken (France)
Style: Amber Ale
Schiltigheim, Alsace, France

(22 oz flip-top bottle: $2.59 at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, CA) When I first started drinking "good" beer (well, better than Coors Light), I used to love this stuff, and had so many Fischer bottles, I used them to bottle all my homebrew. Of course, I quickly graduated to truly good beer, and so, it’s been 10 years since I last tried this Fischer beer. But you know, this isn’t all that bad a beer. But let me qualify that; not all that bad doesn’t therefore mean good. It’s only moderately flavorful, but I get a distinct British style nuttiness sitting on top a base that reminds me of a sweet cream ale. There’s some mild bitterness, but it certainly is just along for the ride rather than having any meaningful contribution. Although the body is at best medium, the palate is very creamy, soft and smooth. On the negative side, there is also a mild cardboard undertone. Surprisingly, the nose hardly shows any resemblence to the flavor, which is unfortunate. This beer smells very grainy, and that combines with some funky, nasty odor that’s pretty offensive. One of the worst smelling beers I can remember, and that even includes some infected beers! The color is light amber, and the sizeable off-white head shows pretty nice retention, holding a thin, complete layer for the duration of the session. There’s a thick rim of foam at the top of the glass, with many small spots of lace below. All in all, this beer runs the gamut from nice visuals, to mediocre flavor, to awful aroma, so I’d say it’ll probably be another 10 years before I try another bottle of this.

light amber with mild aroma and flavor, but not at all a complex flavor.

Beer poured a light golden brown with a sizeable, light brown head. There wasn’t much in the way of aroma, and the flavor was really mild for an ale. What I did taste was pretty unpleasant sort of like sour milk. It was a little watery unfortuantely too. Cool looking bottle though. Oh well. I guess the moral of this story is: don’t judge a beer by it’s bottle.

i love the bottle. the taste is ok, but nothing spectaculr. i’d pay the price just for the bottle alone.

Good amber/golden color.Small white bubbly head that faded slowly leaving just a faint lace behind.Light malty aroma with a decent hop presence,and something that smells a little on the funky side.Malty flavor with a good hop presence and a bit of an off after taste.There is also just a hint of alcohol coming through but it’s fairly easy on the pallate.Over all it’s pretty smooth for the most part,but it’s also nothing special as well.Worth trying atleast once but beyond that is up to you.

Clear, brownish gold. Fair sized white head. Aroma is skunky, wet straw/hay maybe? Bready flavor that lingers. Not recommended.

inactive body, big airy white head, acidic apple with light bready notes. nothing much here! but it is not that bad. feels thin, just not noteworthy enough. and this is an amber? egh, i don’t know. there’s nothing really to care for in this little ol’ french beer. UPDATE 2/5/05: downrated. i had a whole beer this time, and i had to drainpour. the flavor is offensive, seriously. not much in aroma, nor flavor... but it really did cause my tongue to roll. reminded me of my infected homebrew from awhile ago...

This beer seems rather weak. Aroma is almost nonexistent and what’s there is slightly vinegary, acrid, with vague hints of dirty laundry. Very thin syrupy texture, but plenty of carbonation. Tastewise it’s actually ok - quite malty with hints of cola, and a (still slightly acrid) bitter linger - this plus the 6% saves Fischer Amber from a dud-1 rating in my book. Here it seems Fischer is out of its league, i.e., to have "swung at a bad pitch" - the brewery has plenty of good products on the market.