12 oz bottle courtesy of finewinemike as part of my 2010 Secret Santa package. This beer was on my Wants list for a long time, and I must admit I’m a bit confused by that – I *think* that’s because BA used to have this categorized as an ESB, and a such I was interested in in. I have the feeling that this haas been re-categorized iin the BA db.
A very hazy, mid-orange pour that yields some frothy, “dirty” head and comes with some yeast sediment from the bottle. Some sticky lace.
Very strong bread nose with plenty of sweetness.
Tastes are similar to the nose in as much as we get a big blast of malt and plenty of biscuity character. There is (somewhat disappointingly) quite a lot of solvent alcohol taste, too. The sweetness (which is fairly intense), does temper the alcohol some, but the overall package feels STRONGLY “American” in a s much as it is pretty much devoid of much subtlety.
The English malt/biscuit character is there, however the beer stomps all over the simplicity of that. When the simple notes are lost, it seems a bit like the point of this beer is left behind.
I dunno, this feels like an “Imperial ESB” which in my book is an oxymoron – shame.