Beer Review - Palmetto Amber Ale

I was on travel this week to Charleston, SC. We had an after work social at California Dreaming and I asked about the local beer. The barkeep only had one suggestion, the amber ale pictured at right. I was surprised, and he added he add one more, a Pale Ale from Palmetto Brewing, but the delivery hadn't come in. To be honest, I thought a restaurant with pretensions to be Californian out to have more than Miller, Bud Light, Blue Moon, and Widmer Hefeweizen on draft. In fact, other than the one local beer, even the bottled line up was rather ordinary, as Mrs. Daddy's Aussie cousins would say (translation, pretty poor.) The only thing the restaurant really had going for it was a great view of Charleston harbor.

Regardless, I always try to sample the local beer, and this was going to be my one shot. Palmetto Amber Ale pour a dark copper with not much head. The barley is roasted a little darker than a standard amber. took my frist sip and was a little surprised. Fred one of our local hosts had warned me the beer would be bitter; but while it was definitely more hoppy than your average amber, it was not near as hoppy as expected. The beer also had a nice rich malty taste to it, that went down well. Alcohol content seemed about average. This beer was tasty enough to order a second one to go with the overcooked wings and soggy nachos. (The croissants, however, were delicious.)

My final gripe was that they kept the ale ice cold and served it in ice cold pint glasses. I had to let the beer set a while so I could taste it.

Overall, considering that I sampled Palmetto Amber Ale from the bottle, I was very pleased with this local beer. I give it a solid B. Given the richness, they could have easily balanced with more hops.


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