Another Alty Amber
Tasting session 24
Beer 1 Choices: Wee Heavy, Märzen, Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Eisbock
Beer 2 Choices: Best Bitter, American Amber Ale, International Amber Lager, Altbier
Beer 3 Choices: Belgian Golden Strong Ale, Saison, American Wheat Beer, Weizenbock
Score: 1/3
Beer 1 things to look for:
Wee Heavy: cherry/sherry
Märzen: clean yeast, malt forward
Belgian Dark Strong Ale: esters, phenols, high carbonation/attenuation
Eisbock: malt dominant, booze, clean yeast
Notes:
I detected an overwhelming aroma of sherry wine when smelling, and a taste test confirmed this. The body was heavy and carbonation was weak, so I eliminated Belgian Dark Strong first. The sherry booziness led me to eliminate Märzen, which is a style that is malt-driven, but typically doesn’t come off as very sweet or alcoholic. I get Wee Heavy wrong all the time in blind tastings, so I took a lot of time trying to figure out this one since I’ve never tried an Eisbock before.
While Eisbock is known to produce some fruity ester notes, this sample was dominated by a maraschino cherry/sherry flavor and aroma, with no noticeable dark bread/toasty qualities I’d expect in a dark German lager like this. Due to this high amount of fruit character, I choose Wee Heavy, as that is usually what helps me differentiate it from a Doppelbock (which has a similar flavor profile to Eisbock).
I’m not sure if Eisbock typically displays this amount of fruity/sherry character or if this beer was old/oxidized. As a beer ages and oxidizes, hop aroma decreases and then hop bitterness decreases. Next, malt shift occurs as melanoidins in malt oxidize, causing a malt flavor shift away from bready/toasty flavors toward sweeter things like honey and sherry. This shift toward sherry flavor is very common in high ABV malt focused beers as they age, and I think that happened here. Eisbocks aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, so it’s my guess that this one probably sat around for a long time and oxidized before I bought it. Or maybe I just need more Eisbock practice.
Beer 2 things to look for:
Best Bitter: fruity esters, UK malt/hops
American Amber Ale: clean yeast, US hops/bitterness
International Amber Lager: clean yeast, neutral profile
Altbier: bitterness, malt forward, yeast character?
Notes:
I got this one wrong, but I feel like this was a pretty good miss. The aroma and flavor revealed no UK malt, hop, or yeast character, so I felt confident eliminating Best Bitter. The malt profile was quite rich and flavorful, so I felt comfortable eliminating International Amber. I didn’t detect any fruity esters, but since Altbier isn’t known for having a ton of yeast character, I didn’t want to hang my hat on that. Our guidelines say that some ester character is acceptable, but I tried a few classic examples of Altbier when I visited in Düsseldorf, and none of them had prominent yeast character.
The beer was delicious- toasty/dark bready malt and a crisp bitterness that brought a fairly even balance to the malt. American Amber and Altbier are both hoppy beers with deep malt character, but I’d expect the American Amber to lean slightly more caramelly whereas the Alt would be more grainy/bready. Additionally, I’d expect some level of American hop character (pine/cannabis/grapefruit) to be present in the Amber, whereas the Alt would be bitter, but have little flavor/aroma coming from the hops. Altbier is a malt-driven style, and the bitterness is there primarily for balance and not so much for aroma/flavor.
I didn’t get much caramel or American hop character, so I went with Altbier. Since Bell’s Amber Ale is described by the brewery as having “clean bitterness”, I don’t really feel like it fits into what our guidelines say American Amber should taste like: “moderate to high hop flavor with similar characteristics as the aroma” which are stated to be “citrus, floral, pine, resin, spice, tropical fruit, stone fruit, berry, or melon”. Bell’s Brewery describes their Amber as having “herbal and citrus hop aromas”, which are broad descriptors, but are certainly not the hallmark of what I’d expect from American hops (pine/resin (cannabis)/tropical fruit). The BJCP guidelines also have Alskan Amber Ale as a classic example of American Amber, yet even on that beer’s label it says “Alt Style Ale”. All this to say, I feel content mixing up American Amber with Altbier. Something is awry with these beer style guidelines.
Beer 3 things to look for:
Belgian Golden Strong Ale: esters, phenols, boozy?, like a big Saison
Saison: phenols, esters, bitterness, test for Tank 7
American Wheat Beer: clean yeast, US hops
Weizenbock: Weizen yeast (clove phenols and banana esters)
Notes:
Going with appearance is never a smart thing to do when blind tasting. If a glass isn’t perfectly clean or if it’s been sitting for too long, the head can collapse and foam/carbonation character can seem different from how it normally is when pouring fresh. However, the foam in this sample was like meringue- it didn’t budge a millimeter, and I let these samples sit for a while beforehand and evaluated this beer last. To me, that’s a dead giveaway that it’s Belgian. I needed to do an aroma/flavor evaluation to make sure; it’s just not safe to rely on appearance for these blind tastings.
There were tons of fruity esters and spicy phenols on the nose, and a taste test confirmed this. That allowed me to eliminate American Wheat. It seemed like there was much more fruit/spice character than just banana and clove, which encouraged me to eliminate Weizenbock. Swishing this beer around in my mouth and the foam nearly causing the sample to burst out of my mouth sealed the deal on it being Belgian, so Weizenbock got crossed out. Duvel is a house favorite, and this beer looked, smelled, tasted, and had the mouthfeel of Duvel (the archetypal example of Belgian Golden Strong Ale).
The alcohol presence confirmed this, and the only other Saison with comparable boozieness would be Tank 7. Tank 7 is classified as a Saison for our exam, even though it certainly doesn’t share the characteristics of traditional Saison. However, there wasn’t the American hop charge found in Tank 7 or heavier body I’d expect in that beer. The body in this sample was very much bottle-conditioned style: tons and tons of foam with a light, crisp body. I went with Belgian Golden Strong, and it turns out it was Duvel!
