27 August 2017 - Best Beer HQ
Abita Amber Lager Review
Abita Amber Lager was about as ubiquitous in New Orleans as smooth jazz. During the three days that I was in The Big Easy, I must have had this beer half a dozen times. It seemed that every café, pub and bar in the city stocked it, often at the expense of all other kinds of beer.
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 17
Blurb about the beer (according to the Abita website): Amber is a Munich style lager brewed with pale and caramel malts and German Perle hops. It has a smooth, malty, slightly caramel flavour and a rich amber colour.
Abita Amber was the first beer offered by the brewery and continues to be our leading seller. Amber is Abita’s most versatile beer for pairing with food. It has been voted “best beer” in numerous New Orleans reader polls and is used frequently in recipes of great Louisiana chefs.
Abita Brewing Company: A brewery in Abita Springs, Louisiana, USA, 30 miles (50 km) north of New Orleans. According to the Brewers Association, last year Abita was ranked 20th on its list of top 50 craft breweries by sales and 29th overall on its list of overall brewing companies.
Tastes like: Caramel, malt, and grains. Abita Amber is very thin, though, so none of these flavours are particularly strong (imagine drinking water from a glass that has recently been filled with pale ale and you won’t be far off what this beer is like).
It’s smooth, dry, and inoffensive. It’s got a nice amber hue, but that’s about the best thing you can say about this beer, because it’s just not very good.
The verdict: This beer is incredibly average.
In New Zealand, I’d liken it to Speight’s or Lion Red – two mainstream New Zealand draught beers, which pour brown, taste like fizzy beer water, and are reasonably popular with the masses because, firstly, it’s available everywhere, and secondly, because they don’t know any better.
Well, now you know better than to order Abita Amber Lager, unless it’s the only craft beer available.
Beer/movie combination: Usually I like to choose a film that I feel reflects the beer that I’m reviewing in some way. But for Abita Amber Lager I’ve opted for a director who, like this beer, completely and utterly lacks substance, and yet still seems to enjoy mass commercial appeal… Michael Bay.