Red Rock Amber Ale, OPA-OPA Brewing Company, South Hampton, MA

Remember college? You'd wake up one morning, roll out of bed, possibly hungover, head to the cafe, hit the soda machine pouring yourself a sweet Sprite. Sit down at the table take a long pull of that Sprite and realize that something is seriously wrong and you have to spit it out because the machine ran out of syrup? Well that's how I feel about the Red Rock Amber Ale. It's as if they decided to make a beer soda, made it a diet soda, and then forgot to add the syrup and it was all carbonation with just a slight fruity hint of hops and malt. This beer however won the gold medal at the 2005 Great International Beer Festival. So either I suck at tasting (very possible) or the Great International Beer Festival is similar to T-ball and the Special Olympics where everyone wins. I don't believe in that world and I believe that OPA OPA needs to turn its Amber around. The Amber has 5% ABV. The Amber gets a 1.