Batch 374 (Amber Ale)
Magic Hat Brewing Company in Rochester, New York, United States 🇺🇸
Amber / Red Ale Regular|
Score
6.76
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle from long ago back log. Pours amber brown with light off white head. Nose and taste of sweet grainy malt, light floral hops and light grassy citrus hops. Lighter than medium bodied.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Lightly hazed amber ale with a thin lacing white head. A pungeant hops in aroma, with pot like qualities. A light caramel malt in mouth, with nice funkey hops action, light grapefruit, and pinhous notes. Very nice body, oily mouthfeel. Good, pleasing and surprising. August 26,2006 at McGregor’s, Henrietta, NY.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
Pours a light brown amber with cream colored head. sweet hoppy citrus aroma can be found. Sour spicy dry flavor finished a bit floral.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Clear copper color with a medium creamy off-white head. Sweet citrus hops aroma. Sweet floral hops flavor with some citrus in the end.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
1 oz draught sample at the brewery with Snugglehatch on 3/12/06.
Well well, a 1oz sample rating. Yep, I’m doin it, and here’s why. I will be buying a bottle and reviewing a full bottle when it comes out. So why not wait until then to rate it? Because I think this is a perfect opportunity to gauge how much effect small sample size has on a rating. But why not just hold off on entering this rating until I enter the bottled rating? Because I dont have notes and my memory wont last that long. And if you think I’m doing it just for the numbers, then why didnt I rate the half-bottle of Batch 373 that I shared with Barry? Now that that’s out of the way, I think it will be a fun experiment (and it’s magic hat batch 374 anyways, so who really gives a damn?)
Looks more like an American pale ale, though I guess that isnt saying anything definitive. It dosent have much crystal/caramel malt coloring, and thus ends up rather golden-amber, not a deep reddish-amber. Small white head, fair amount of carbonation, even a touch of lace on the small shot glass.
Aroma is heavily hoppy, but not obnoxiously so, with notes of pears, limes, tangerines and white grapefruits. Fresh, lively yeast doughiness, a bit of pale malt sweetness. The hops keep up as I drink it.
Flavor is again quite hoppy, though not terribly bitter, just leafy, green and lightly juicy, perhaps, creating a touch of pleasant puckering up front, followed by two-row sweetness, a bit of pale malt and a real woody dryness on the end. Ringwood yeast, when used correctly and fresh, is very clean and crisp and this is exactly so here. Only a medium body, though (not that that’s a bad thing), really focusing on the hops, with some light crystally dryness, and a lingering citrus and woodiness. Lightly bubbly texture, well carbonated. I appreciate the fresh, clean, crisp hoppiness of it right now, but I’m quite worried with what will be left, once the hops begin to fade (which they will do quickly). Pretty exciting that Magic hat has now done 2 amber ales in their "Special" batch series......