Censored

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Censored

• Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company (California)

• Style: Amber Ale

• ABV: 6.75%

• IBU: 25.08

• Pour Color: A hazy deep amber color that light gets thru. 

      The pour came out with a nice fluffy head. It lasted a little while before disappearing. The scent off the top was malt heavy. Strong aroma of toasty caramel malts of some sort. The color of the beer was a darker amber that had a haze to it. The flavor of the beer was much less sweet then the scent would have led me to believe. This beer has a character that is unusual for a amber ale. It's got a full body and a malty taste that just is bigger then most ambers. The yeast and the toasted malt mix to give you a nice fresh bread or biscuit flavor. On swallow you get that familuar red ale finish of caramalts. A nice amber ale in my opinion. 
      Most amber ales just are fairly boring to this mustache. I'm actually more inclined to grab a wheat ale. That being said this is a lot different. Normally if I'm going to give a amber a distinction it's cause of the hop heavy way they did it. This beer here has little hop flavor but still awakes the taste buds. Another swim in this one is gonna be come shortly cause this is a good beer!

Rating: ****1/2

Eliot Ness

The Beer Stats: 

• Beer Name: Eliot Ness

• Brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Company (Ohio)

• Style: Amber Lager

• ABV: 6.2%

• IBU: 27

• Pour Color: A amber color that light got thru easy

      The color was a toasted amber color along the lines of almost a red. The head came up frothy and eventually mellowed, although it left a trace of it self the whole way down! The scent off the top is malty yeasty and toasty. Not really a hop lovers beer here. The taste is much sweeter then I usualy enjoy. That though is mixed with a toasty almost biscuity taste. The only hops come through as a earthy variety, not very bold though. Really a lager that has some soul not just fizzy yellow sugar like some. 
     This is a nice light amber that is light but not. 6.2% abv gives it a little kick that most ambers wouldn't have. The toasty flavor and easy drinkability make this a pretty good beer. Not something to go tell the neighbor hood about either. Any speak easy or every day bar should have something this smooth on!

 
Rating: ****1/2

Winter Red Ale

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Winter Red Ale

• Brewery: Otter Creek Brewing Company (Vermont)

• Style: American Amber Ale

• ABV: 5.5%

• IBU: 45

• Pour Color: A reddish dark amber to this one.

      The head wasn't to fluffy when The Face poured this one. Just about a half inch of head that went down on fist sip. It would linger as a film in the center of the glass and on the outskirts. The light traveled thru this one easy. You get a scent of the caramel malts and the hops off the top. Not a real strong scent but you know both are there. The flavor was a well ballenced mix of hops and malt. Citrusy and spicy the hops are a good portion of flavor. The malts are sweet and slightly roasted. Not really overly sweet. Not a totally dry finish to the swallow either but the sweetness doesn't linger to long. All and all a good winter red ale that has a good hop kick.
      This is Otter Creeks winter offering and I could see swimmin in it next to a fire. When picking this one up you can't expect and Irish Red. This is much more a hopped up amber ale then anything else. It just doesn't have that biscuity sweet flavor a Irish Red has. That's probably why I enjoyed it as much as I did. 

Rating: ***1/2

Red Nectar

The Beer Stats:

• Beer Name: Red Nectar

• Brewery: Nectar Ales Brewing Company (California)

• Style: Red Ale/Amber Ale

• ABV: 5.4%

• IBU: 35

• Pour Color: A clear orange color that really has little carbonation.

      On pour, this one had a nice original color that not many ales have. Orange and pretty perfectly clear. The carbonation seemed very low out the bottle, however the head raised quick. That was gone quick though and didn't leave a trace at the top. You really only get a malty caramel scent off the top of this one. No real hop presence in the smell. On taste you get a nice sweet malt up front. Caramel is there too in the taste and a nice grassyness to the light hop flavor. There also is a weird off flavor of iron in this one. Not my favorite red ale but also not one me or the face would turn down.
      This one really was a middle of the road red ale/amber ale. The balance of flavors is done well but with the weird iron flavor every few sips is off putting. The light carbonation and light body though makes this easy drinking. I would recommend it to red ale lovers but I don't think a average beer drinker will enjoy it.

Rating: ***