32 oz Growler courtesy of brewer, John Rybicki.

Very dark pour, almost black to the naked eye, but with reddish brown highlights when held up to the light.

Head is solid, lace better than average and some spotty retention with a tea colored collar.

Very malty nose – John said that he was concentrating on brewing a beer that highlighted a lot of malt here, and he succeeded. Some decent bitterness and drying finish in the back end.

Smooth and clean this is (at last) a competent, indeed slightly above average beer.

I like it. It’s a malty beer with less Irish character than one might think for the style, but for me it has some machinations of an English ESB. Don’t get me wrong, it’s NOT that beer, but coming in at 6% and doing what it does in the glass it’s really not a million miles away.

Tasty, with some serious chocolate notes.