Kirkland Signature Amber Ale

Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Brewed at Matt Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
San Jose, California USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Terrible - stale ape sweat, wet dog skunked malt base. Overly sweet with a soapy skunky. Moderate caramel sweetness with a soapy hop citrus note.

Single bottle from my brother o 09/09/2012. Colour: Darker brown with minimal head...and clear. Nose: Dark malt dominant with slight cocoa nibs and a glazed caramel presence. Trace of rubber. Taste: Medium-light sweet, medium-light bitter, light sour. Some nice roasting gives character to the malt. Caramel presence is light but does add some softness. A bit of plum late and more cocoa. Satisfactory.

12 ounce bottle from 24-beer case sampler from Costco at $18.00/case. Beer brewed in Utica New York by the Saranac-Matt Brewing Co. Good deal!

Aroma is nutty with hints of caramel and smoke. Dark copper color, fairly still. Taste is nut filled pastry with coffee, with peat and wet hair on the side. Stale oat aftertaste tarnishes an otherwise smooth palate feel. I knew right away that this was a Matt product.

I love all things Kirkland and am also a big fan of Costco, but I was a little letdown by their Kirkland branded beers. These beers are being made for Costco by Gordon Biersch, and sadly that lineage is clear from the way these beers taste (ZZZZzzzzzz). I thought the amber was the best of the ones I tried, and is a pretty nice but very middle of the road beer. Aroma is discernible, and is lightly malty and pleasant. Color is a copper color with decent head. Flavor is again lightly biscuity with a barely detectable hop note. Mouthfeel is pretty much akin to a full-calorie macro-lager. Not bad, but I think so highly of other Kirkland products (their ham is terrific!) that I was a little let down by this line of beers. However, I felt this one was the top of the stack.

Meh...a very average/average- offering. I rarely expect greatness from an amber. When one thinks "carpe diem", one rarely thinks "amber ale". But that’s ok...it’s a fine style and can serve as that "go to" beer when you have no clear preference. This, however, didn’t measure up in that regard. I shudder to think that only a couple of meager $$$ more might have bought a Kalamazoo Bell’s Amber or something comparable. Alas, this is where I wound up (proving that an additional rating, especially after a few hundred, is often NOT worth it!). Decent color and head, but light in the nose and one dimensional in the flavor.

Poured from bottle. Roasted malt aroma. Dark amber - pretty much the bottle color. Roasted malt, caramel, a bit of hops in flavor. Slightly dry feel, very drinkable. Nothing outstanding here, but OK. .

The constituent parts are often greater than the whole. This is how I perform a price calculus when faced with the option of investing in a variety pack, even if it is distributed by a brewery I’ve had bad luck with before. But Kirkland is a blank slate, and with the way they peddle high quality goods at prices even a graduate student could afford, how could I say no? First in line is the Amber. Dark brown body and a thin head, it looks the part - a nice...amber, I’d say. The smell is quiet, but shows some honeyed peanuts, some maple donut glaze, and even a little bacon - an odd mix, but not altogether bad. The flavor is where this brew falters - a thinnish palate serving up a strange, nutty mixture with a mild maltiness, a wan hop tinge and some of that brown sugar. The sweet dimension helps, but does not save this brew. A solid drink, sure, but not the star of even the limited beer selection available at Costco.

Bottle. I must say the color of this beer is nice, a deep copper. Now I must admit that I don’t like ambers in general, so I’m trying to be non bias. However this taste blah. Malt backbone with a yummy hint of metallic. Nothing more to say.

Bottle. Pours clear amber with a small head. Aroma and flavors are semi-sweet malt, with some light hops. Decent amber.