St. Andrew’s Amber Ale

www.belhaven.co.uk/

Brewed by Belhaven Brewery Company Ltd.
Style: Red Ale/Amber Ale
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

St. Andrews is a seaside town northeast of Edinburgh, on Scotland’s east coast, not too far from the city of Dundee. It’s known has the home of Golf, that game where grown men hit a tiny ball around a big field and do it while wearing the most garish attire you can imagine. This was the inspiration behind Belhaven’s St. Andrew’s Amber Ale, a nod to the divot digging game that is played throughout the world. 

Belhaven, located in Dunbar, a town, 20 miles from Edinburgh, is Scotland’s oldest working brewery. Established in 1719 it has a long and glorious history and today produce a wide range of beers, with local barley and water from an old well, they sell right across Scotland and further afield

Review: 500ml bottle of St. Andrew’s Amber Ale: 4.6% vol.

On the bottle it tells you that the beer was “inspired by the great Scottish invention: golf”, and there is picture of a golfer with a green blazer swinging at a ball.

The bottle is well designed too, looks lovely, and the bottle cap is a thistle, the national flower of Scotland, important to note too that St Andrews is the patron saint of the country. 

On pour we get a very decent sized white head with a ruby amber looking coloured beer, deep in appearance, looks pretty good. Some nice soft carbonation bubbling away.

Head maintains well. A good looking beer, good start!

The smell is also very good. Getting a lovely malty beery smell, nice on the nose. Caramels, roasted barley, sweet malts, grains, and earthy hops. 

First impression from the taste is I am getting a nice lovely malty feel, creamy as well, that is going down nice, cold, lovely and crisp on the taste buds.

Caramel and toffee tastes, biscuity malts, barley, all found, all well balanced with the hops.  Light but very enjoyable. Lovely served cold.

Malts to the fore, while the hops are on the low level, pretty mild for an ale, but no harm as it went down very well. I like it, very relaxing, a light beer, smooth and oh so easy to enjoy. 

Some depth to it, but on the low level, this is tasty and great for sipping while watching a movie or surfing on the net, or even after a few holes of the small game it was inspired by, golf! A good companion to a long night of relaxation. I liked it a lot, smooth and very easy to drink, did the business and will definitely check it out again in the future.

A simple effort here from Belhaven, nothing too crazy or complex, it’s the simplicity that is just right making this beer very, very drinkable. Recommended.

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