
Hell Creek Amber Ale, appropriately served in a fossil-themed glass
The keg is gone barely a week for my wild hop amber ale, so it’s better late than never in posting this review. Also, I bottled up a few of these and enjoyed sharing them with some folks at Homebrew Con (including a paleontologist or two)!
- Aroma
- Malt dominates the aroma, with malty-sweet toffee and light caramel character. No appreciable yeast or hop character.
- Appearance
- Very clear beer with a deep amber color. The head is ivory in color, and settles down to a low but persistent quality.
- Flavor
- Hoppiness dominates on the front end of the flavor, and persists throughout the tasting and into the finish. The hop character is fairly herbal, and the bitterness has a slight rough edge to it. The malts come across moderately, with a caramel and bready quality. There is a minerally character to this, and next time I’ll probably adjust the water a bit to lower that. 100 percent Claremont tap water apparently doesn’t work with this recipe!
- Mouthfeel
- Moderate body and moderate carbonation. The finish tends toward the dry and bitter side.
- Would I brew this again?
- This is an improvement, certainly, on the last version of this beer. I think it was a good move to ditch the special B. This is an interesting beer, because I “have” to brew it within some self-imposed constraints (only Montana/South Dakota ingredients). I would say that the beer doesn’t age entirely well, probably due to the high percentage of caramel malts, and had a bit of an oxidized note towards the end of the keg. For the next iteration of this recipe (assuming there is a next, of course!), I’ll probably switch up the grain bill and see what other amber ale recipes are out there. The caramel is just a touch heavy in this for my tastes. As noted above, I’ll also play with the water a bit.
- Overall
- 6.5/10