Why is Amber Ale so BORING?

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Trail

Trail

Oh great, it's that guy again.
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Seriously. I've tried ten or fifteen of these unremarkable beers, and except for the ones at the beginning where I'd bought sixers and had to finish them, I haven't ever bought more than one of a given Amber.

No interesting malt profile. Middle of the road hops. Do interesting Ambers exist? I'm willing to brew it myself if I have to, but I need to know one way or another! :drunk:
 
Zoe and Red Rocket are two good examples that come to mind. Though I kind of feel like there's such a large cross-over between Amber ales and IPAs/PAs that the style is a bit redundant.
 
lumpher said:
Not even close. Not sure where you came up with this idea, but ambers and IPA's are WWWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY different.
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As far as BJCP categories are concerned you're most certainly right, but based on that I'd be hesitant to call either of the beers I listed an amber ale, even if that's what they're labeled as.
 
I can see why you would think of Amber's as boring for all the reasons you mentioned. I think of them as comfort beers....kind of like comfort food. You know pretty much what you are going to get...no surprises just a well balanced (hopefully) beer. Nothing earth shattering but sometimes that's okay.
 
Amber Ale is what American craft beer was all about before most of you guys got into it. It was good at the time, like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. It has served its purpose though, and will never come back
 
Well, I don't hate all this agreeing with me that's going on. ;)

I'd probably agree that more hops would help (while taking it into IPA territory.) It's weird, because I really enjoy bitters and red ales, and surely an amber would fall in between. Actually, I'm just now seeing that BeerAdvocate lumps American Ambers and American Reds together - interesting, as a number of red ales thus classified I've enjoyed.

Maybe people set out to brew an Amber, and then change it to Red if it's accidentally good. :troll:
 
Wow. Love ambers, can't relate. Try Troegg's Hopback maybe? I love many styles, sometimes I want big hops, sometimes I want thick maltiness, sometimes I want balanced deliciousness, which is one of the things I love about ambers.
 
Ha. I'm kind of on an amber kick. I had previously written the style off, but I had an excellent one made by North Peak. Their Siren. From a bottle it was almost mind-blowing, most likely because I was expecting so little. Great malty/caramely goodness. Of course, I just had it at the brewery over the weekend, and it was bland and not very good. Not sure about that, but it has caused me to try making a similar recipe that I'm tweaking over a few batches now. I have also made the Caramel Amber recipe mentioned above and it is a solid beer. All that being said, with ambers there is a lot more ruff than diamond trying them out.
 
Darwin18 said:
Definitely don't get the hate on Ambers...probably chalk it up to the hop creep that's becoming more prevalent in other "American" styles including pale ales. I usually try to brew an Amber every fall and it's a big hit among my friends who like beer but aren't hop heads. Definitely a crowd pleaser.
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This......I agree I almost always have an amber around for a mild beer to serve to people who "just like beer".
 
Darwin18 said:
Definitely don't get the hate on Ambers...probably chalk it up to the hop creep that's becoming more prevalent in other "American" styles including pale ales. I usually try to brew an Amber every fall and it's a big hit among my friends who like beer but aren't hop heads. Definitely a crowd pleaser.
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I really like American amber/ American reds. (Same thing).

I love the rich caramel flavor, and I usually "layer" the crystal malt by using some lighter crystal and some darker crystal so the flavor has deep notes of caramel and toffee. The bittering hops balance that sweetness, so it's not too sweet, and then the late hops bring great flavor and aroma to the beer.

They are really nice beers, if made well!
 
i love an amber. simple and flavorful. denny's amber recipe is amazing and perhaps my favorite in the style.
 
Amber ale's are good for kicking back a couple with a pizza or whatever. Here in Houston I can usually find Saint Arnold's Amber in places that other wise have bmc and maybe Shiner Bock. I'll take the amber ale in that case.

On the other hand last time I went for a pizza they had St Arnold's Endeavor IIPA on tap as well as the amber, and I was quick to order the Endeavor, that's a fantastic beer.

Another amber ale I quite enjoy is Clown Shoes Eagle Claw Fist, it's an imperial amber, so a bit different, but a very nice beer IMHO, it's on my list to brew something similar.
 
Ambers are definitely among my favorite style. I usually bump the hops up a bit, to the top end of the style when I brew my regular one, but my favorite part is getting those nice crystal flavors to shine.

Thankfully that's what's awesome about homebrewing, you can brew your favorite style and I can brew mine. I've brewed quite a few different styles in my short homebrewing career and it seems like the Amber is still my favorite to just kick back and relax with. As someone said above, it's like a comfort food. It's the Pot Roast of the beer world and I love pot roast as well.
 
I really like myself a good amber and I've had many great commercial examples..... problem is that so far I'm only learning what NOT to do when brewing my own :D (but I've got another iteration on the way ;))
 
Yooper said:
I really like American amber/ American reds. (Same thing).

I love the rich caramel flavor, and I usually "layer" the crystal malt by using some lighter crystal and some darker crystal so the flavor has deep notes of caramel and toffee. The bittering hops balance that sweetness, so it's not too sweet, and then the late hops bring great flavor and aroma to the beer.

They are really nice beers, if made well!
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Yooper - do you have a favorite amber recipe that you'd be willing to share?
 
Hm, this is getting interesting. I wouldn't describe the ambers I've had as "balanced" or "rich." Most of them haven't even been particularly malty... they're just there, in my glass, being kind of sweet and not very hoppy.

A lot of the nasty ones I've had, have come from microbreweries which aren't inspirational at the best of times. One was by Saranac, which was a mistake. Maybe next time I'm down at the beverage warehouse I'll seek out a new amber and see what's going on.

It is clear that thorough investigation is required. :mug:
 
One of my favorite beers I've made was an amber kit I got from Midwest. I need to make it again. It was gorgeous! Nice, easy drinking, and balanced.
 
evrose said:
Yooper - do you have a favorite amber recipe that you'd be willing to share?
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The great thing about ambers/reds is that they go from pretty "sessionable" (and maybe a bit boring) like Fat Tire, all the way to something like HopHead Red.

My favorites are in the middle grainbill wise, but leaning towards overhopped I guess.

Here's one that I made this past winter, that I loved (10 gallon batch):
It was a sort of a "clean out the grain bin" brew, but I will make it again exactly like this!

15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
2 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 20L
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 60L
1 lbs White Wheat Malt
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 120L
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 80L 6-Row
6.0 oz Amber Malt (Crisp)
4.0 oz pale chocolate malt

1.00 oz Northern Brewer [10.00 %] - First Wort 60.0
2.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min
2.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min
California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)
 
You are drinking the wrong ambers...Like most styles, when done right, it's delicious. Its also like any other style in that there are tons of breweries doing it poorly. The other issue with ambers is that many of the breweries look at the style as one they can produce and market to the masses, so the idea gets watered down.

Troegs Hopback is delicious, as is Great Lakes Elliot Ness(an amber lager...but still).
 
Yooper said:
The great thing about ambers/reds is that they go from pretty "sessionable" (and maybe a bit boring) like Fat Tire, all the way to something like HopHead Red.

My favorites are in the middle grainbill wise, but leaning towards overhopped I guess.

Here's one that I made this past winter, that I loved (10 gallon batch):
It was a sort of a "clean out the grain bin" brew, but I will make it again exactly like this!

15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
2 lbs Munich Malt
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 20L
1 lbs Caramel Malt - 60L
1 lbs White Wheat Malt
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 120L
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 80L 6-Row
6.0 oz Amber Malt (Crisp)
4.0 oz pale chocolate malt

1.00 oz Northern Brewer [10.00 %] - First Wort 60.0
2.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min
2.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
2.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min
California Ale (White Labs #WLP001)
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Very nice. Thanks so much. You we're kidding about layering the crystal malt. I've been looking for a good amber recipe - and I'll add this to the brewing queue.

Cheers!
 
I used to think they were boring,but now I enjoy them and enjoy making them. you can choose to got\ outside of the style guides a bit and make some really good beers. They seem to go over better with the BMC crowd than my blondes,pale ales do...
 
I love ambers. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for something overly hoppy and ambers are easy drinkers.
 
Weizer said:
I brewed this, and it turned out awesome.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/caramel-amber-ale-167880/

Ambers, unless they lean towards the hoppy side, are fairly boring imo.
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+1 on this recipe.

I find most commercial ambers pretty boring too, including, and I'll take the flak, Fat Tire. Is it these brewers don't want to risk offending anyone because it's such an easy recognizable style name that becomes the next logical choice, after lager?

A few weeks ago I brewed that Caramel Amber with home made candy syrup and deviated a tiny bit from the original recipe by layering the crystals. It turned out to be a very tasty beer. Quite dry with very solid caramel notes, and a slight citrusy hop flavor. I've been sipping samples since fermentation completed and noticed its changing character over time and think it was best about 3 weeks after brewing, freshly kegged after a week of conditioning at 75°F followed by a 2-day cold crash.

Since then the hops are coming more forward and the caramel notes more subdued.

I'll may try Yoopers recipe next and compare.
 
Kerin said:
Seriously. I've tried ten or fifteen of these unremarkable beers, and except for the ones at the beginning where I'd bought sixers and had to finish them, I haven't ever bought more than one of a given Amber.

No interesting malt profile. Middle of the road hops. Do interesting Ambers exist? I'm willing to brew it myself if I have to, but I need to know one way or another! :drunk:
Click to expand...

I agree with you. I'd given up on ambers until I came up with this recipe...

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/WaldoLakeAmberAle

It's popular enough that Northern Brewer made a kit out of it.
 
SixStrings said:
Zoe and Red Rocket are two good examples that come to mind. Though I kind of feel like there's such a large cross-over between Amber ales and IPAs/PAs that the style is a bit redundant.
Click to expand...

This. I bought a sixer of Sierra Nevada Flipside and was very unimpressed. Just tasted like a pale ale, but I guess it is an amber? I would have never known it was amber if I had left it in a bottle. Really not sure what the point of that beer is...
 
I was never a huge fan of steam beers until I brewed my own (I think I largely followed Yoopers california common recipe, adding 0.25 lb carafoam to the grain bill), and now it's one of by favorites. Yet another reason to love homebrewing: you can make great beers that really come to life.
 
To wit, I don't care if an amber tastes like a pale. That's fine. The boring ambers I had would have been boring pales, though.

I'm pretty fond of Anchor Steam though. Yum. Too bad my corner store got rid of it in favor of Golden Monkey. :mad:
 
Looking at some of these recipes that are posted, I'm thinking that the "boring" Ambers are primarily US pale malt and crystal, while the less boring include a decent quantity of Munich in there to rev up the malt.

Might be a takeaway lesson for some folks looking to brew a good amber...
 
erockdoc said:
This. I bought a sixer of Sierra Nevada Flipside and was very unimpressed. Just tasted like a pale ale, but I guess it is an amber? I would have never known it was amber if I had left it in a bottle. Really not sure what the point of that beer is...
Click to expand...

I believe SN calls Flipside a "red IPA"
 

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