Amber Ale

From Cloudburst founder-brewer Steve Luke, here’s a homebrew recipe for the West Coast double red that won gold at the 2025 World Beer Cup.

In 2025, Seattle’s Cloudburst won World Beer Cup gold in the Strong Red Ale category for its throwback West Coast double red, Peaked in High School. Here, founder-brewer Steve Luke opens his yearbook to share the details.

Besides having a nice red-amber hue and tasting great—earthy, malty, and spicy-bitter—this recipe shows how alternative base grains can make a significant difference in flavor.

This beer began as an attempt to brew something with a properly reddish hue for the holidays—but it serves just as well as an exploration of earthy rye and malty depth with a firm, spicy bitterness.

From Chicago’s Burning Bush Brewery, this amber ale includes two types of basil grown right there on their patio next to the Chicago River.

This Belgian-style amber ale should serve as a fine vehicle for any “concrete” sugar such as panela, piloncillo, rapadura, tapa de dulce, or jaggery.

Kentucky common is a smooth, drinkable, light-amber hybrid that’s closer to Kölsch, cream ale, and California common than it is to Jack Daniels.

Fermented with Thiriez’s house saison yeast, this ambrée has a complex, malt-forward flavor with aromas of citrus peel, hazelnut, caramel, and gingerbread.

From Reuben’s Brews in Seattle, here’s a recipe for a modernized take on amber ale that features plenty of hops in the whirlpool and a broad, malty foundation.

Whether they’re smooth, malty throwbacks or hop-drenched progressives in crimson tuxedos, here are some of the best American amber and red ales we know.

“Mecha Red is a modern amber ale intended to be malty and caramelly, but not a sticky caramel bomb,” says Van Havig, cofounder and master brewer at Gigantic in Portland, Oregon. “It’s mildly fruity from hops and esters and finishes with a hint of chocolate.”

A ruddy ’90s pint is reappearing with modernized flavors—and it has a lot to say about the evolution of American craft brewing.

In a world where nearly everything seems to be a pale and/or juicy IPA, here is a welcome change of pace: a depth of fun malt and hop flavors, patently American without being one-note citrus-driven.

On the last days of winter, what could be better than spicy soup, a roast with smoky character, and a winter-warmer-spiked bread?

This big and hoppy American amber ale is an illegitimate scoundrel’s not-so-little brother.

An American amber ale with light malt and biscuit flavors, balanced by a crisp hop presence.

Westcoast-style amber full of caramel and citrus hop, with a touch of roast in the finish.