Adirondack "Bear Naked" Amber Ale

There's the Bear

From the "buy by the bottle" rack at Glenville Beverage. I've seen this before, and maybe even tried it without writing it up, but today it's worth a retest.

The color is sort of a dark straw if your screen shows it like mine, and while the head was thin it didn't go away before the brew was all gone. That's fine with me, "big head" goes poorly with a mustache and gives me a chance to offend someone by blowing foam all over the bar. As long as it doesn't go flat I'm happy. I've seen amber ales with more red in the color, but it usually comes with more caramel taste, so there's a choice.

The aroma is subtle, and pretty balanced between malt and hops. It has a very nice hop flavor, fading to an okay aftertaste. The aftertaste was nice, but not exceptional. The flavor got a bit stronger as the brew warmed to 50F, not a bad thing to have your beer taste even better as you sip it. I hate beers which taste worse with every sip and which tempt you to chug them because they become pretty insipid as they get above the initial serving temperature.

Diminishing taste is good for sales, but not for moderation. I particularly notice the loss of flavor in beers made with things other than malt, like rice for example, and when a beer uses trick packaging to invite you to serve it "super cold" I wonder why the brewer wants your taste buds numb.

What the brewer wanted

Here's a little essay from the label, on bears and how the ale is brewed. Fancy label, good ingredients in the wort, brewer who knew what he was trying to do. And for all that you are rewarded with a brew which is complex and well balanced, plenty of flavor for serious beer snobs, but balanced so as not to offend the senses of people who normally drink mass produced pseudo lagers, or even light beers. If I were hosting a party and wanted to please most of the beer crowd, this would be a good choice.

A note on bears: they are wild animals, stay away from them. Fear of humans is your defense, don't give it up by feeding them or getting close in search of a good picture. My wife and I used to go bear hunting during NY "early bear" season, tenting in the woods, and bears may suddenly decide to "un-friend" you for no reason at any time.

It goes on my change of pace list, contrary to what my friends say I don't always drink IPA.