St-Ambroise India Pale Ale
McAuslan presents its New World take on the classic IPAs of the 19th-century England. In those days, the beers was brewed extra-strong and generously hopped to help it survive the long journey to India. Inspired by that history and today’s blod American IPAs, we’ve married Cascade and Chinook hops with a subtle blend of malts -anyone who appreciates strong ale will love it. Hop bitterness and malt smoothness: it’s a journey your taste buds will enjoy time and again.
3.2
215 reviews
Montréal, Canada
Community reviews
Really enjoyed the taste and the bitter finish it had. Am looking forward to sampling their other types.
Canned. Almost clear orange body, big off white head. The aroma is peach, apples and malt. The taste is sweet and balanced, not overly bitter. Nice one!
473 ml can. Copper color. Small head. Nice appearance and aroma. Very good taste. Bitter finish. Good IPA.
Canned sample from MLCC....very weak...poor tasting..coppery...did not like this one
Pours a very large amount of foamy creamy white head and has a light amber appearance. Some dirty smudgy lacing. Somewhate excessive carbonation. Aromas of floral and citrus hops dominate. Flavours are also of the citrus hops variety. Has some nice bitterness to it. Hints of lemon, lime, some spices are well balanced within, not too offensive. Some grainy and toasty malt flavours also in the mix. Mouthfeel has a prickly warming sensation. Orange like taste in the finish. Pretty good stuff and quite affordable.
Bottle. Clear golden amber pour with a small white head. Not a bad aroma or flavour, but a pretty plain and unremarkable IPA. Medium body, some spruce and resinous hop notes. Starts pretty balanced, but some lingering metallic bitterness in the finish.
Pours a golden orange. Big fruity aroma. Taste is very bitter. Not very balanced. Dry finish. Hint of grapefruit
Can, Mulmur, ON,Canada. Gold, muted citrus hop aroma. Bitter sweet, metallic caramel. Sharp finish.
Slightly hazy amber color with a strong amount of activity. Creamy beige 2 finger head, lasting around 10 to 15 minutes, with some very good legs.
Smell of caramel biscuit and citrus. Flavors of orange, lemon, caramel, burnt sugar, grains, pine, ester, herbal spices. Grassy and piney hops with a roasted malt breadiness. Balanced mix of all flavors, but a little faint.
Light body with a moderate amount of carbonation. Light to medium strength finish of moderate length, ending with a strong piney tongue coat, a little hoppy and malty.
Overall this is a decent craft offering good flavors that are a little too faint, and a weak body and smell. Lacking some freshness being a little flat with a boozy and diacetyl feel. Although well balanced, it has almost no real personality.
Orangy hue with off white head. Hoppy malty sweet aroma. Light palate but the balance is okay. the flavour easily matches the aroma. This beer is not all that distinct to be memorable and is a easy drink.
341ml bottle, best before 2016-12-06 (6 months ? Yeah, right !!!). Pour golden with a small foam of big bubbles that leave my sight pretty fast. Aroma of butter (diacetyl) and notes of malt. This beer is probably 20 days old and I don’t smell nether taste hops. Light body, oily and average carbonation. Bitterness is lower then his brother Session IPA. The long waiting for the resin taste is not coming. Buttery malt from start to finish.
473ml Can. A good example of a simple IPA. Nothing too fancy but nothing done wrong. Beautiful golden color with a nice carbonation. Bitterness is well balanced and carry on at the end but not too much. Small hint of grapefruit,
Appearance: clear pale amber with two fingers of loose ivory head, short retention and patchy lacing. (3/5) Aroma: generalized fruity esters (stone fruit, apples and pears, some citrus), caramel malt, floral and earthy. (6/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (7/10) Medium somewhat creamy body, moderate carbonation, slightly sticky and lingering bitter finish. (4/5)
Fairly straightforward English-style IPA, with fruity tones and caramel malt followed by a lingering moderately bitter finish. A solid example of the style, if not all that interesting. (Which, if I’m honest, is probably a key element of the style, right?) I’d place this somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as St-Ambroise’ offerings go - better than their Framboise and Pumpkin, not as good as their Barleywine or Stout. (13/20)
Bouteille de 341ml. Dégustée le 5 juillet 2015 (shaker). Bière ambrée limpide. Col mince, beige crème, persistant. Très effervescente, bulles moyennes. Odeur de miel et de houblon (amertume). Douce, assez sucrée, assez amère. Saveur de pamplemousse. Rafraîchissante, se boit bien. Amertume tranche juste assez, n’est pas gênante.
16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 4/21/2015. Pours lightly hazy orange/amber color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense soapy lacing clings around the glass. Aromas of grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel, pear, apple, plum, melon, light pepper, pine, caramel, honey, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of citrus/earthy hops, fruity yeast, and moderate dark/bready malt notes; with solid strength. Taste of big grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel, pear, apple, plum, melon, light pepper, pine, caramel, honey, toasted biscuit, light nuttiness, herbal, and floral/grassy earthiness. Moderate pine/herbal/spicy bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of grapefruit, lemon/orange peel, pear, apple, plum, melon, pepper, pine, caramel, toasted biscuit, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/earthy hops, fruity yeast, and moderate dark/bready malt flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance and zero astringent hop flavors after the finish. Moderate dryness from bitterness that increases through the glass. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth and moderately creamy/bready/sticky balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with minimal warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very nice English IPA. All around good complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus/earthy hops, fruity yeast, and moderate dark/bready malt flavors; and very smooth and easy to drink. A very enjoyable offering.
Du pamplemousse et de l’amertume sur cet agréable lit de sucre d’orge qui caractérise les Pale Ale de St Ambroise
Golden color, hazy liquid and big head.
Strong hoppy aroma.
Taste is bitter.
Palate with dry finish.
Nice IPA
Good hop aroma ...pine with hints of citrus. Nice head with clear pale ale olour. Good head and lacing. Tasted balanced with good malty notes and nice bitter flavor. Very sessionable.
Aroma is floral, fruit and light pine. The flavor is fruit, relatively mild pine needles, malts, light grapefruit and a medium and lingeringly bitter finish.
Sad. In montreal an all I’m drinking is St. Ambroise, but rain and hunger drove me to it. Pours clear gold-amber minimum head. Cream, mild syrup, and resin nose. Creamy malt cereal with mild sweetness, resin, mild perfume and bitter hop. Not bad overall.
couleur jaune orange; petite mousse blanche; arômes et goût maltés et légèrement floraux; un peu trop sucrée et finale moyennement amère; bière intéressante, mais ce n’est pas vraiment une IPA pour moi
Visual: Pours translucent toffee brown without much head, a thin hazy layer of retention, sticky half-lacing, clusters of slow steady streams.
Nose: sweet toasted caramel malts with a hint of citrus. (lvl-7)-pungency
Attack: crisp, incoming malty sweet
Mid-palate: creamy body, (lvl-4)-sweetness, (MAIN) caramel, toasted barley malt,
hint of citrus
Finish: soft subtle bitter hops, citrus overtones, clean lingering bitter hopped finish.
Summary: All-in-all very smooth and drinkable malty IPA. Not a whole lot of hop character but exceptionally drinkable.
473ml can. Can is about 4 months old. Nice clear amber orange pour, big foamy off-white head. Aroma is grainy and sweet peppery/herbal hops, big yeast note, decidedly english and old-school. Lighter oxidation, not too bad, nougat and toffee, almost a berry character too. Flavor is fruity, spicy, herbal, not the most bitterness but some, yeast estery,butterscotch, a bit oversweet. It really is an English style ipa and fits into that category, has a sweetness and in the case of my can a light freshness issue but it is decent.
This was poured into an English pint glass.
The appearance was a slightly hazy burnt pale orange color to it. A one finger white foamy head started and dissipated within about a minute and a half. Semi-clingy slightly foamy white lacing started and slid into the beer.
The smell started off with sweet pale malts wrapping sweet oranges in and around a light earthy and grassy sweet to super light bitterness. "Soapiness" does tweak its way into the mix.
The taste was mostly herbal and earthy sweet through the mix of the oranges and the pale malts. There’s a semi-dry sweet soapiness blending into a super light kick of spice in the aftertaste leading into the finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a decent sessionability about it. Carbonation finishes light showing an ample amount of harshness.
Overall, honestly, all of my prior descriptions of the describing this beer tells me, its an English Pale ale in disguise. To me, I don’t mind it, but I can’t see this as an American India Pale ale and find it even hard to fit it into the English side of the India Pale ale.
Robe ambrée avec une fine mousse. Au nez, c’est plus malté qu’houblonné (étrange pour une IPA). En bouche, même constat. Sucré, malté, mais peu houblonné. Quelques arômes de fruits, et une amertume bien présente.
Assez peu intéressant comme IPA.
Nice! Clear orange pour with a foamy head - no lacing. Flavour is zesty, grassy and hoppy with a good level of hoppy bitterness and pine.
Draught @ Pub du Parvis, Vieux Québec. Pours slightly hazy amber with airy white head. Clear aroma of yeast and malt, with bready notes and touches of hops. Sweetish flavour of caramel malt, with notes of yeast and bitter, hoppy touches. Sweetish, estery and malty aftertraste with notes of hops. Drinkable but poor for the style.
Poured from can. Aroma of citrus. Pours a clear golden with white head. Taste is a medium bitter. Medium body, oily texture, with a bitter finish. Not that great compared to the best IPAs out there.
Bottle from the LCBO. Pours a golden orange colour with a medium white head. Aroma is light hops, grass. Taste is same. Not bad, but there are better IPAs out there.
So I got this as a free sample for the store I work at. Had decent color and aroma but then I tasted it. There was a clear taste of corn, as if they used corn in the mash. I dumped it out.