Sweet butterscotch-yeast nose and caramelized crystal malt mouthfeel caress perky citric overtones as soft textured macadamia nut illusion fills balance. Best Floridian discovered by ’03. Brewery defunct: 2006.
All posts by John Fortunato
AMBARI PREMIUM LAGER
Peculiar pale-toned light-medium body turnabout finds initial acrid burnt wood sourness, smoked salami mouthfeel, and malted maize sharpness overtaken by increasing herbal-spiced pepper-hopped lemon tartness.
AMARIT NB ALE
“Naturally Brewed” pale-bodied Thai with aromatic sour malt pungency tucking candied caramel sweetness below fizz-hopped water flow, reaching purgatory by light pilsener-like finish.
AMARCORD SPECIALE BIONDA
Dry vegetal surge depletes lemony peach tartness and tenuous floral backdrop of soapy, light-bodied, unbalanced blonde ale.
AMARCORD PRIMA DONNA INDIAN LAGER
Respected Italian film director, Frederico Fellini, deserves better than lackluster blonde lager tributary. Initial cabbage-like vegetal waft of palest yellow pearly-headed lightweight bodes badly. Moldy sourdough breading debunks timid lemongrass midst, bruised orange taint, and olfactory hay-barnyard astringency. Lamely watery, soapy suds.
AMARCORD LA PUTENA AMBER ALE
Blasé stump-bottled amber ale with lamest Vienna lager lineage coats thinning caramel malting with skittish mineral-grained earthiness, wispy yellow-orange fruiting, and grassy dry-hopped fling. Watery finish kills off any remaining flavor.
(ALVINNE) PODGE BELGIAN IMPERIAL STOUT
Pour slowly distinguished bottle-conditioned Belgian Imperial or risk having overly frothed tan head exceeding lactic light brown body. Sweet molasses waft reinforced by marshmallow-y Kahlua-chocolate liqueur creaminess to burnt sugared toffee midst. Chewy rum-soaked cherry and bruised banana get strewn across increasingly prevailing anise stickiness upending dry cocoa-mocha finish. Supple raisin-prune thickness enriches tertiary cinnamon-clove spicing and wood-charred coal-embittered coffee chasm.
(ALVINNE) GASPAR ALE
Gaudy herbal hop resin too acridly phenol for alcohol-burnt orange peel bittering and lemony grapefruit rind souring entwining white peppered thyme-sage spicing of eccentric meringue-headed bronze-hazed India Pale Ale. Creamy vanilla-chocolate malting suffers pungent setback by dank basement mustiness and earthen barnyard funk, ravaging tertiary green apple tartness, dried peach tang, and vapid honeysuckle sweetness.
ALPINE PURE HOPPINESS
Dubiously reserved ‘double’ India Pale Ale finds resinous piney Cascade hop rigidity and orange rind-embittered grapefruit zest receding to floral peach-pineapple serenity. Lemon meringue tartness lingers effervescently below.
ALPINE MC ILLHENNEY’S IRISH RED
Brown sugared rye malts and honeyed tea illusions adorn auburn-hued medium body to earthen peat bottom. Roasted nut midst coarsens dry orange, cherry, and red apple tuft as well as sweet tobacco hint.
ALPINE ALE
Pastoral golden-hued pale ale loses creamy luster as head fades. Bittersweet Cascade-hopped apricot-tangerine-grapefruit tang stays above honeyed cereal oats base, fading at clean metallic finish. Fair lawnmower fodder.
ALMAZA PILSENER
Same-named Holland brew now bottled in Lebanon for Middle East crowd. Pleasing pilsner malt sweetness usurped by moderate barley-toasted citric hop bitterness and pithy dried corn cusp.