ACC Beer Tourney: # 1 North Carolina vs # 8 Virginia

      The North Carolina Tar Heels are represented by NC's own Duck Rabbit Amber.  The Virginia Cavaliers have Charlottesville's own Starr Hill Amber on their side.  NC is amber with a rich creamy sweet caramel nose with a bit of citrus.  VA is amber with caramels,herb and perhaps a little yeast. The Heels jump out with their superior talent, but begin to stall.  The Cavs  hit some shots and keep it close early, but the talent isn't there.  The Heels are a bit off  but get better and better, sip after sip. Virginia is just average at best and they can't keep up with the excellence of the Tar Heels.  It's time for people to start heading to their cars this is a blow out.

Analysis:  Starr hill amber is drinkable, but way down on my amber list.  Duck Rabbit is near the top.  I will say the DR Amber tastes a little strange at first, but gets much better.

Scuttlebutt Amber Ale

      Scuttlebutt just appeared in stores around here and I really liked their Winter Beer.  This would be their Amber Ale.  Amber is the perfect all-purpose beer.  Good in any weather.  Flavorful, But not to strong for those pussies who don't like big beers. Not too big, not to little,  just right.  Scuttlebutt pours out a cloudy amber with massive sweet caramel, slight herb and citrus nose.  This is a nice crisp amber with gobs of caramel.  It also has a nice hop bite with a little citrus herb tone.  Nice balance, classic flavors,  a winner.  Perhaps, not as good as Duck Rabbit's or Full Sail,  but worth a look.  A classic done well.

Jumping Cow Amber Ale

      Jumping Cow is from the Steinhaus Brewery which has no web site.  However, this stuff is available at Trader Joe's and they appear to have a connection.  The Cow pours a classic amber and has an herbal nose with some background caramels.It comes off as O.K. with decent balance, but something is a little off here.  The body is alright.  Maybe the hop is a bit off putting.  Not the amount, but a strange herbal note that I find unpleasant.  As I continue to quaff it I find it quite drinkable.  But this is way down my list of the amber's I've had.  There is just way better out there, no need to go here again.

Pike Heirloom Amber Ale

      Once again I'm grabbing a big bottle of Pike.  Their stuff has been so good I have a hard time resisting.  Heirloom pours out a classic amber and has scents of rich caramel and herbal bitter hop.  This stuff has lots of rich caramels up front, than the hops come up very strong.  However they don't overwhelm the other flavors.  This is an excellent example of a very hop heavy beer that still has balance of flavors.  This is crisp, refreshing and flavorful.  I could drink this stuff all day.  Pike once again has produced a real winner, and if it wasn't for their undrinkable stout they would have a perfect record. Go get it.

Full Sail Amber Ale

The last of our ambers is Full Sail Amber from Oregon, our first beer from the Pacific North West. Full Sail pours out a clear amber to copper with an unusual tinge of orange. The nose is crisp with caramel and mocha and the taste reflects it. It's a slightly chocolaty caramel with crisp hop up front and a tingle throughout. Again a very flavorful amber, crisp refreshing and very balanced. I could really put these down, it's just a delight to drink. A great amber for all occasions. I really thought the Bell's would be my #2, but Full Sail is better. It just has more flavor. So of the ambers the clear #1 is Railbender followed not too far behind by Full Sail and then Bell's. A distant fourth and fifth are Red Rocket then Boont last. Boy three out of the five here are exceptional. That's pretty good. Anyway time to move on to the most recent Sam Adam's sampler.

Bell's Amber Ale

The Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo Michigan is one and one with me. Their Two Hearted Ale is very good while I found their Winter White to be bad. But since I'm trying Amber's I thought I would grab their's and see which of those earlier beers was the fluke. Bell's Amber is a cloudy amber with a bit of stuff floating around in it. It's got a strong caramel nose with crisp hop and a tinge of yeast. This has nice honey and caramel with a very balanced hop throughout. The finish is really short, but this is just a nice beer to drink. Great flavors, a nice refreshing crisp bite make this a good every day beer. So far second only to the superb Railbender. I would definitely recommend picking up a sixer.

Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale

Boont Amber just drew the short straw and has to follow Railbender. Well it better be good. It's made by the Anderson Valley Brewing people from Boonville California. That would be somewhere in the northern pot growing region of the state. Alright, it's amber and it's caramelly. These amber ales all have the same flavor profile, so I'm getting sick of writing the same stuff. Well this is a decent amber, but after that Railbender this beer is lame. Oh well, better luck next time Anderson Valley Brewing.

Fat Tire

Fat Tire Amber Ale is the flagship beer of the New Belgium Brewery from Fort Collins, Colorado. Their beers are slowly spreading around the country, and here is the reason why. Fat Tire pours out a classic amber color. The nose is heavy on the caramel, light on the hops with a really sweet mocha note. The taste? Flavor, flavor, flavor. Big caramels, molasses, and mocha.Excellent crisp hop balance up front which kind off disappears when the big flavors hit, but it's there on the finish. This is easily one of the best beers from one of the big micro-breweries I've had. This goes with any occasion or season, with food or just drinking. It's a bit light on the body, but if you plan to pound a 12 pack, and I do, that can be an advantage. Count the days until this beer makes it to your neck of the woods. Check the web site for availability. As you may be able to tell from the picture, we're back at the beach for a few days, so it's New Belgium and NC beers.

Duck Rabbit Amber

This is, alas, the last of our North Carolina beers before I leave the Outer Banks, and return to the spring beer tourney. It's been awesome looking into the beers of this area and just hanging out on the beach. I'll be back to explore the local beers again soon. So finally, we have another entry from The Duck Rabbit Brewery of Farmville North Carolina. This is a nice dark amber to copper pour with caramel, bitters and yeast on the nose. The flavors are very nice, strong caramel and big malts. There are goodly hops zinging throughout, which are tingly on the tongue. But the mantra of this beer is balance. Everything aligns in perfect harmony to create a delicious amber ale. Duck Rabbit does nothing special they just create classic styles very well. I'm impressed. I will now compose another haiku about my love for this beer.

Dark amber, moon light
Quaffing the goodness of malt
The Duck completes me


Duck Rabbit