Fischer Traditional Amber - Brasserie Fischer, Schiltigheim
Style:
Amber
Serving Type:
Bottle
Alcohol by Volume:
6.0%
Aroma:
Smells of salty bread and grains
Appearance:
Warm in color but light for an amber. Golden orange hue, off-white head with plenty of lacing.
Flavor:
Practically no hops... a little tangy, almost fruity.
Mouthfeel:
Smooth but not quite creamy. Carbonation is visible but you can't feel it on the sip.
Overall Impression:
This beer started of as a surprise but ended as a bit of an enigma... It's called an amber but tastes of virtually no hops. It's also lighter in color than what you'd expect in an amber. Maybe amber as a beer style means something different to the French.
I thought I knew what I was getting into with this beer when I saw it at the store. It's an amber, a style I'm familiar with - and it's got a German name, a country I'm familiar with. That should have been the tip off that something wasn't quite right. The Germans don't make amber beers... at least not the kind of red and hoppy ambers we've got in the states. I was surprised when I went to pour a glass of this Fischer Traditional Amber when I noticed the fine print on the label... it's from France, not Germany. Nothing bad about that, the French make some good beers. This beer is from the Alsace, a particularly German area of France so maybe the name wasn't deceiving so much as it was coincidental... Well, the surprises didn't stop there.
Upon pouring this German, I mean FRENCH, amber I noticed it was a bit light in color. When I think of an amber beer I'm expecting a reddish color but still dark orange. The Fischer Amber ended up being quite a bit lighter than any amber I've ever seen before. Appearances can be deceiving though, something I learned from the label of this beer, and I wasn't going to judge the beer without tasting it. If the flavor is reminiscent of an amber then it doesn't matter what the beer looks like. Well, surprise! This beer doesn't taste like an amber at all. Rather, it tastes a little tangy and vaguely like peaches or pears. I'm guessing something got lost in translation at when the export version of the labels got printed at Basserie Fischer.
With all of that being said, this isn't a bad beer. If I'd had this beer at a blind tasting and it were compared to a low alcohol content version of a Bière de Garde I'd have a tough time choosing which one I'd prefer. Bière de Garde is a style the French do exceptionally well, so well in fact that their amber beers tend to taste a bit like them as well. In the end, I like this beer. It's got a unique flavor profile that fits into the grand scheme of things somewhere between a farmhouse ale and a Bière de Garde. I'd drink this one again, just not when I'm in the mood for an amber.
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