Abita Amber:
Greetings friends and neighbors, especially to all those who fall into both categoreies.  Today we take this bus tour of beers down to our friendly neighbors to the east (at least here in Texas), Louisiana and take a look at the best thing to come out of that state since crawfish, Abita Beer.  I won’t gush over the awesomeness of Abita here (I have older reviews that do that) but know that they are probably my second favorite brewery behind the fish looking dogs up in Delaware.  This being the case, it seems strange that I haven’t gotten around to their main beer yet, the beer that put them on the map and is most widely available: Abita Amber.  Brewed as a Munich style lager, this beer is one of those beers that, when you can get it fresh (usually on tap) it’s one of the best beers out there.  My beer poured a nice dark amber with a touch of clarity, a decent thick but stable off-white head that sticks around through most of the pint and a nose of caramel, roasted malts and fruit.  The initial taste was heavy on the malts and caramel but moved to a light roasted nut flavor that seemed, at times, to have a touch of apple crispness to it.  The backend and after taste were very malt heavy though a touch of hops was noticeable in the aftertaste.  As I said before, this beer can be amazing but, sadly, I’ve had this beer come in on the mediocre side of things more often than not.   If you run across this at a bar or restaurant on tap, ask for a sample before you try it to make sure it hasn’t gone all malaise on the flavor and you end up being disappointed.  I got lucky with this bottle being a nice beer but in the 5+ years I’ve been drinking Abita, I can count on one hand the number of good Amber bottles that I’ve had.  I think if you follow my suggestions, you’ll be rewarded with a great beer but even if it’s off it’s usual great taste, this beer is still better than anything the usual suspects can put out there.