Alexander Keith's Red Amber Ale
A refreshing amber ale crafted using the finest quality ingredients, with a moderate body and a crisp, clean bitter finish.
2.3
256 reviews
Halifax, Canada
Community reviews
very, and I mean VERY faint sweetness and caramel here. Their "best" beer in my opinion
A reddish-brown colour with a thin white head. Sampled on draught. Sweet aroma and a thinnish taste dominated by caramel. Maybe a slight hint of nuts. Hardly any bitterness or hop flavour. A poor brew with little character, sweet and rather thin tasting.
Tap at Puck in Toronto. The most pointless amberish brew I’ve ever had. Lacks everything, most of all body and flavour. On the positive side: could finish the pint while watching a game. So not exactly disastrous.
Pours dark red with a quick desolving off white head. An aroma of malt and nuts. Has a malt, nut and fruit flavor with a medium body. Good summer beer
341ml Flasche. Rot-braunes Bier mit wenig Schaum. Etwas Röstmalzaroma. Flacher Geschmack. Malz und Nüsse.
Draft. Red body, thick white head that disappears quickly. The aroma is sweet and buttery, while the flavor is acidic. Nice for a hot summer day compared to a lager.
Deep Amber red and clear body with a minimal white head. Atoms of grass and yeast. Taste matches aroma with an overall sweetness.
Draught in Parsborro. It pours deep red with a small off-white head. The nose is sweet, sticky, toffee, generic red fruit and some artificial action. The taste is sweet, caramel, sugar, dried fruits, dull bitterness and plastic with a short, dryish finish. Light body and fine carbonation. Watery, sweet and just very basic overall. Forgettable.
[bottle someone left in my fridge after a party]
This beer screams of "quality" and "premium" like no other. It’s no wonder that it is the pride of Nova Scotia, along with the other Keith’s offerings. The aroma is premium hops and quality malt, while the flavour is premium malt and a quality hop (maybe they put in more than one hop--it’s hard to tell). The lack of flavour premiumifies this beer which, no doubt, costs more than the even more lacklustre mass produced "Canadian" beers. More seriously, what makes this beer different than the yellow ones is the dark colour and a faint nuttiness.
On tap. Clear reddish brown with a creamy beige head. Flavors are sweet/toasted malts and nuts with fruity and metallic notes. Light body, lively carbonation, thin texture.
My Bottom Line:
This deceptively red brew shares nothing of note, not even caramel aromas that are typical to a beer of this billing. Bland and fizzy.
Further Personal Perceptions:
-A slice of foam tops the gleaming dark red.
-That color doesn’t come from malts; it’s obvious in both the nose and flavor profile.
-Tasted blind, this could have been a blond ale. And a tasteless one at that.
-This is obviously drinkable, but eminently forgettable. There are no flavors or aromas to hang on to.
-This is as dishonest a product as their hopless ’India Pale Ale’.
Can.
Nice red color. Small head. Very light taste. A bit too light for my taste for an red. Average.
Smell of metal, sugar, some malt. Copper colour, white head. Aroma of metal, paper, some sugar and alcohol. Finishes with paper. This isnt a good one. Lively carbon, slightly oily texture. Mid-light body. Mid-sweet.
Pours a clear reddish amber with a small off-white head. Aroma of malt and grain. Tastes of sweet malt with a bad aftertaste. Light to medium bodied and very carbonated.
At Puck’s sports bar. Good color, but below my expectation. I had a high one because I like the IPA. Watery. I don’t like watery one. Fruity taste.
Draft. Clear amber pour, taste and aroma of caramel, a bit of grain. Little bit of sweetness. terrible body like the others in this line.
Had a pint with Mexican food, pairs better than crap Sol or Corona. It did the job, not hideous.
473 ml. can. Thanks Doug! Pours a clear copper with a decent off-white head. Aroma of malt and caramel. Taste is malt, caramel, and a bit of fruit. On the thin side. Drinkable but not memorable.
Aroma is light roasted malts, caramel and bland hops. Taste is rich malts with a bland bitterness. Pretty uninspiring overall. A clear amber body with a pearl head that retains fairly poorly.
Bottle. Clear honey brown, cream soda, mild caramel in the nose. Thin watery body. The taste is weak watery caramel, a bit acrid bitter malts kind of a sugary sweet finish. Meh.
On tap @ Lone Star Belleville. Pours a clear amber with a small white head. Aromas are fermented fruit, spent grain, a bit of alcohol. Tastes are light grainy malts, a hint of bitterness in the back-end, and a touch of alcohol. Light body, medium carbonation, light and short bitter finish. Though non-offensive, this beer is a typical mass produced ale distinguished only by a little bit of added color. I have some self-loathing for having chosen this beer simply because I had not yet rated it.
---Rated via Beer Buddy
On tap. Caramel amber pour with very little head. Caramel malt flavour. Kinda flat. Not much going on here.
A simple and refreshing red, but forgettable. Pours a nice red color with a light white head. Smells of malt and cherries. A bit more cherries in the start, with some malt, but finishes sort of empty. Had on tap at Mug and Anchor is Mahone Bay.
Draft - Pale malts and light caramel. Clear amber with a rich white head. Ligh biscuit and caramel, sweet and over carbonated. Typical light lager alternative.
Bottle. Somewhat better than an original Keiths, but that isn’t too hard to achieve. Taste of very light caramel malts, and no hops to be heard of. Inoffensive aftertaste with more of a body than expected. Would take one over a macro lager, but that’s about it.
I actually enjoyed this a bit. Red colour beer with malty taste. Nice balance of hops as well (although I just had some v poor beers so maybe)
bouteille de 341 ml de rousse. arome intéressant de céréales notes de miel et pomme. au gout elle est malheureusement plutôt fade et insipide
Couleur ambrée avec un col léger et non résistant. Nez de caramel faible. Même gout simple. Vraiment pas top...
Bière rouge orangée, parfaitement limpide, effervescence moyenne, large col beige mousseux et compacte, qui s’étiole lentement en traçant son chemin sur les parois du verre. Arômes de pain grillé, sucre d’orge, caramel/cassonade, grain, avec un léger houblon floral. Beau nez qui semble annoncer une bière plutôt sucré, assez intense, mais ça manque un peu de complexité cependant. En bouche, c’est bien pétillant, mais beaucoup trop mince au palais. Au goût, on perd malheureusement beaucoup d’intensité par rapport au nez. Léger pain grillé, sucré dominant, mais il est difficile d’en identifier clairement la saveur (sucre d’orge, caramel, ou tout simplement du sucre brut?), léger houblon floral, pointe d’alcool, finale légèrement amère. Bière correcte sans plus, destinée au grand public, elle est bonne, mais elle offre peu sur le plan de la dégustation.
On tap at Strathroy Ale House. By far the best of the Alexander Keith’s beers that I tried. Great deep amber almost red colour, lots of caramel malt in the aroma and a good hop/malt combination in the flavour.