For today’s craft beer review I’m going to be having a Bell’s Amber Ale produced by Bell’s Brewing, Inc. located in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I’ve had this beer many times before, but have never given it a proper review, so let’s just go ahead and jump to the website, bellsbeer.com, and look for the description of the Amber Ale.

Amber Ale deftly balances a mixture of toasted grain & light caramel notes with a range of floral, citrus and herbal hop notes, capped by a clean bitterness. This balance of flavors makes Amber Ale quite versatile as a food pairing option, not to mention being rather tasty in its own right. Whether serving as a jumping point to other styles or as a familiar standby, Amber Ale is central to the Bell’s portfolio.

Let’s do this.

This brew comes in a 12 oz. bottle and it has an ABV of 5.8%.

The beer poured a hazy, nice amber to brown shade with some burnt orange and yellow highlights around the edges.  The head was off white in color, of decent size, mostly creamy and soft.  The retention time was decent and the lacing looked alright also.

The nose on the Amber Ale was kind of a mediocre aroma of caramel malt, light walnuts and toasted wheat bread mixed with a subtle fruity pear or something.  Some earthy hops gave a little more complexity, and all in all, it was decently well balanced, but just a tad meek and underscored.  Not too complicated either.

The taste let the hops come forth a touch more.  It actually had a commendable little bite.  Mostly grassy and grainy notes I thought.  A good dollop of caramel sweetness was noticed and the fruity pear seemed to be a little more pronounced as well.  More of the toasted wheat bread was found, but none of the nuttiness that was hinted upon in the aroma was accounted for.  Again, fairly well balanced, but not very elaborate.

The mouthfeel was medium bodied.  Very smooth, dry, creamy and chewy.  The carbonation was very lively and good and an ok amount of flavor was left covering the palate after each sip.

Well…  this is a pretty agreeable beer.  It’s not a world class brew I don’t think, but rather more of an easy going, fun to drink, no-nonsense kind of beer that could be enjoyed with friends.  It was super easy to drink and kind of an introductory brew for the style in my opinion.  It’s worth a try I guess.  I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered, but I probably wouldn’t go looking for it either.  With that being said, if you guys try the Bell’s Amber Ale, be sure to let me know what you thought of it.

Thanks for reading and commenting everyone.  I really appreciate it.  It means the world to me.

Until next time.  Cheers.

Score:  3.65 out of 5
Grade:  B