God Bless Texas | The J Street Beer Review

Brew Review-Ziegenbock Amber

I had been saving this bottle of Ziegenbock Amber for a very special day, and today is that day. Today (last week) is March 2 or as it is known in better parts of the world: Texas Independence Day. While this beer was originally a Texas-based micro and is only available in Texas, it is now produced by AB inBev. To make matters worse, it’s meant to be a competitor to Shiner Bock. This reeks of Coors’ Batch 19 as a competitor of micros. Thankfully, Shiner has actually thrived in the past decade.

Now, Ziegenbock Amber is not a beer that will blow you away, but for me, it tastes of college. It tastes of weekend parties with $65 kegs of Ziegenbock instead of $60 kegs of Keystone Light. It tastes of late Thursday nights on 6th Street at bars with $1 beers. It tastes of four straight hours of victory at the beer pong table. It tastes of a time when I could stay out till 2am Wednesday through Saturday night and still get up for morning class without a debilitating hangover. In other words, it tastes of a time when I was young, poor, and did not have any responsibility.

Color: The beer is a dark amber almost brown color with about a centimeter of cream colored head that doesn’t disappear quickly (let’s say it all together: “that’s what she said”)

Smell: Simply smells of college keg parties at my house — It’s beer. It’s balanced. No fruit. No chocolate. No bourbon. Just beer and that’s what it smells like.

Taste: Balanced, nothing spectacular, but that is why I love it. It doesn’t taste like crap. It doesn’t taste like grass. It doesn’t taste like bourbon (nothing really wrong with that). No chocolate. No citrus. It tastes like beer.

Body: Smooth and light for an Amber. There is a reason we used it for beer pong, flip cup, drinking games, and bongs.

All in all, it’s solid especially if you need a keg for a long session of drinking games.