Wild Goose Amber

Brewed by Wild Goose LLC (Flying Dog)
Style: Amber Ale
Frederick, Maryland USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

Clear amber color with a thin white head. Aroma of strong caramel and some light molassas. Sweet caramel flavor, but not much else.

Orange gold body, light white head. Malty aroma, mollasses is also present. Thin taste, light hops and malts, nothing too outstanding. Bland ending, no bite.

Pours a nice hazy brownish orange. Aromas of caramel, hint of fruit and hops. Nice creamy malt taste with a nice hop bitterness.

Slightly hazy bright reddish amber. Creamy off-white head. Very sweet aroma… kool-aid or sweet alcohol drink. Some caramel. Taste is very sweet too… kind of the same sweetness as the IPA, just tweaked a bit. Some stale caramel. The beers from this brewery are very sweet, and the sweetness flavors makes them overlap a bit.

Mmmmmm... wonderful aromas of rich caramel and plum. They almost spoil the taste, as the hazy dark orange headless pour exhibits caramel and orange sweetness (not cloying) with a slightly bitter copper back. DarkElf is exactly right, as this brew gets somewhat "tea-like" toward the end of the pull. Not a bad brew; shows complexity without a cloying simplicity.

Got this in the wild goose variety pack. Rather surprising dark appearance. OK taste, nothing offensive, but nothing to bragg about.

12 oz. bottle. Dark orange body with a thin white head. Aroma was a bit sweet and orangey. Flavor is okay - a bit of hops, a bit of malt, a bit of orangey flavor. Not bad but nothing special.

13-Feb-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with hopscotch, thanks Eric!) Another bottle ended up in my possession, so I might as well see if my opinion has changed. It has, but for the worse. I’m just not a fan of one-dimensional, sweet, caramely beers with a sugary and cheap-tasting aftertaste. There’s nothing else here, just that sugary caramel malt flavor, plus a touch of butteriness toward the finish, but preciously little in the way of balancing hop bitterness. I guess it’s that buttery aftertaste that’s getting me. Otherwise, my observations are pretty much the same as from last year. Caramely nose, medium body, ruddy-amber color, good clarity, small, off-white head that fades to nothing. Average at best.

26-Mar-05 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jasonp, thanks Jason!) Back when I was drinking Wild Goose Amber years ago, it was fairly hoppy, but this seems like a totally different beer. It doesn’t even come close to matching up with my previous notes. First off, the label says "English Style", and it certainly seemed like an American Style amber back then. I detect almost no hops in this beer at all. It’s quite caramely, moderately sweet and tea-like, but these flavors seems stronger than they probably are because there is little else to counter them. Without the advertised "robust hops flourish," I’m wondering if the beer is just stale, but I can’t be sure because the Best Before area has been left blank by the brewer, thanks guys. The nose smells like malt and tea. The palate is very soft, kind of slick and oily, and barely medium bodied. It’s your basic amber color, and there is cloudiness here I didn’t expect to see. Small, off-white head fades to nothing, and there is still plenty of beer left in my glass. Lacing is non-existant. In the end, it’s not that this beer tastes bad, it just doesn’t taste at all like what my previous notes indicate, and nor does it taste like the beer’s description.