Amber beer

Amber beer is beer with a colour between golden blond and brown: amber, copper or reddish brown. That colour comes from the malt. Besides light base malt, the brewer uses caramel malt or crystal malt, whose sugars have already been caramelised in the maltings, and sometimes a small share of roasted malt or roasted barley.

According to the Nederlandse Brouwers, amber is a top-fermented beer with an amber colour, a light fruitiness and a mild bitterness. Top-fermented means that the yeast works at a higher temperature and rises to the top during fermentation. Amber is therefore more a family than a single style: the name covers Belgian, French, American and Irish beers, each brewed by its own rules.

Belgian amber is called spéciale belge or Belgische speciale in Belgium. The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) describes the style as Belgian Pale Ale: amber to copper in colour, clear, with a creamy white head and an alcohol content of 4.8 to 5.5 percent.

According to the BJCP, the style originated after a competition in 1904, intended to create a local beer of its own in contrast to imported British ales and continental lagers. The style is most common in the Flemish provinces of Antwerp, Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. The grist consists of pale malt, aromatic malt and caramel malt, with no adjuncts. The BJCP names Palm as one of the well-known examples. The American Brewers Association has called the style Belgian-Style Speciale Belge since its 2021 guidelines.

A French ambrée is the amber-coloured version of the bière de garde, the traditional farmhouse beer from the region around Lille in northern France. The name means roughly beer for keeping. According to the BJCP it used to be brewed in early spring and stored in cool cellars for the warmer months.

Bière de garde comes in a blonde, amber and brown version. The amber turns a reddish bronze. The brewer uses pale malt, Vienna and Munich malt and crystal malt, and lets the beer mature cold for a long time after fermentation. According to the BJCP the alcohol content is between 6 and 8.5 percent. According to the brewery, La Goudale Ambrée from northern France is a top-fermented amber beer of 7.2 percent, brewed with roasted malt.

Both are amber to reddish, but the colour comes from a different direction. The American amber ale (BJCP 19A) is an American craft beer that grew out of the American pale ale. The colour comes from medium to dark crystal malt and the hop is often American. The BJCP gives a colour of deep amber to copper-brown and 4.5 to 6.2 percent alcohol.

The Irish red ale (BJCP 15A) owes its red tint mainly to a small proportion of roasted barley or black malt, which also gives a dry finish. Caramel malt used to be expensive in Ireland and was therefore not used by all brewers. The Irish red is lighter: 3.8 to 5 percent alcohol. The BJCP sees the style as an Irish variant of the English bitter, with less hop.

The difference lies in colour, malt and strength. A Belgian blond (BJCP 25A) is deep yellow to deep gold, with Belgian pilsner malt and often sugar, and has 6 to 7.5 percent alcohol. Amber is darker thanks to caramel malt or crystal malt; a spéciale belge, at 4.8 to 5.5 percent, is moreover considerably lighter in alcohol.

A dubbel (BJCP 26B) can be close to amber in colour: the BJCP describes dark amber to copper with a reddish depth. The dubbel is stronger, however, at 6 to 7.6 percent, and gets much of its character from caramelised sugar syrup and Belgian abbey yeast. According to the BJCP, the modern dubbel goes back to the dubbel bruin beer that Westmalle first brewed in 1922.

’t Bockje currently has 10 bottles of amber beer, most of them from Belgium and the rest from France and the Netherlands. From Belgium there are Palm, the well-known example of the spéciale belge, Martin’s Pale Ale MPA33, Corsendonk Rousse and Corsendonk Christmas Ale, Satan Red from Brouwerij De Block, Boerken from Brouwerij Den Ouden, Krab from the Scheldebrouwerij and St. Hubertus Tripel Amber.

From France there is La Goudale Ambrée on the shelf, and from the Netherlands the collaboration Jopen x Stigbergets Ryeght Down The Line Pale Ale. Would you like to know which bottle suits what you are looking for, or how an amber compares with a dubbel or a blonde? Feel free to call or drop by ’t Bockje at Brink 2 in Bathmen.

The shop is at Brink 2 in Bathmen. Open Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 18.00 and Saturday from 09.00 to 17.00. For advice, call 0570 541 278 or email info@bockje.nl.