Notes on beers in the style
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It's such a blessing that so much Ridgeway beer gets to the USA - still. Even in the era of import decimation, this beer still keeps on coming. I am quite literally so very grateful. Sourced from my online DC shop. Beautiful, light copper, crystal...
Odd that I've never reviewed this given that when I used to go to Asheville on a regular basis from Atlanta, Green Man was basically my favorite place to go, and ESB was a beer that I drank multiple pints of on each occasion. Oh well. 12 oz bottle...
Waypost tends to specialize in Farmhouse/Saison and other Belgian influenced styles, so a sojourn into the ESB area is not necessarily going to showcase their strengths. However, because their beer is generally very good, I'm encouraged to try one...
Additional notes 06/16/16 6.5%, excellent value at $3.99 from Hop City. Beautiful amber pour with all the attributes of a hoppy, English ESB/Strong Ale. Hops slightly too advanced for my own personal taste, but well within the guidelines. Semi-Rich...
Brewer's Share series. Right off the bat I am extremely annoyed by the abuse of the ESB moniker, and although utterly trivial to some people, I feel it deserves more respect and abusing it serves to misinform the public. Pour is an attractive...
Every time I see an American brewed beer with the ESB moniker, my heart sinks. On nearly every occasion that I recall, the resultant beer has been dreadfully disappointing, mainly because it has been so far away from the genuine article it often...
Single 500 mL bottle from Green's on Ponce, Atlanta, GA , USA. Superb color on the pour, giving a beautiful, garnet clarity that I seldom see these days. Color is deep and present. Head is to be frank, a little disappointing. Small, not well...
12 oz bottle from lackenhauser as part of Veterans BIF. Pour is a touch on the light side of amber and also gives quite a lot of murkiness. Head is average, dissipates quickly and leaves a little watery lace. The head is not too much of a problem,...
12 oz bottle from my recent Columbus, OH trip. Nice color on the pour, but the beer lacks life. The red highlights and general bright body and clarity are encouraging, but then the lack of carbonation, head, lace and retention let the beer down....
OK, it's not brewed in England and it's NOT a cask offering, and I could still be happy if it was taken down another 0.5% on the ABV, BUT, on the face of it this at least has the potential to help me out in my desperate and generally futile search...
On-tap. Slightly chill-hazed pour with a traditional, light, bubbly head that although not dense, still provides some very nice, sticky lace. Has a cask appearance in terms of the head. Served WAY too cold for my liking, even without the...
12 oz bottle. Bottle with ridge on the neck reminiscent of the Westy 12 bottle. The appearance was a somewhat pedestrian, light amber but cloudy body, but the head and lace were very good. Some nice layered lace. A little light and clouded on the...
500mL bottle from Bruisin' Ales on a recent haul. $5.50. 23 SEP 09 dot-matrixed on the neck along with 8206 207A. Light, orange amber pour with a thin, wispy, ivory head. Little lace, but this is probably due to the temperature of the beer. Nice,...
Delighted to get hold of this one fom a recent Bruisin' Ales mail order. Can as shown in the BA db picture. Popped the top with very little fanfare. Aggressive pour leads to an initially high head but this fades to give a nice, spotty film on the...
Picked this one up at Riverside Beverage in Chattanooga, TN, USA. I believe that it may have been a s little as $3.99 for the 22 oz bomber. Shared with some of the usual crowd at The Brick Store on a Friday afternoon. Pour yields a very clear,...
Here's a quote from the Wainwright brew that I reviwed earlier and is relevant here. "I am worried about a couple of things about the range in general. These beers tend not to travel well, and in any case they are simply beers that are infinitely...
12oz bottle from a sixer from Green's on Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. $7.49 for the sixer I think. First beer that I have drunk in nearly six weeks! Pour is a somewhat thin looking amber/reddish orange that looks surprisingly carbonated with lots of...
Ahhh...an American ESB that fits largely into the ESB category - a nice surprise! 12oz single from Total Wine in Kennesaw, GA, USA. Notched as being bottled in the first week in Feb. Reasonable to assume that this is Feb '08 (since Total Wine seems...
I absolutely DESPISE the use of the letters ESB to mean Early Spring Beer; it is both deceptive and classless. This is NOT an ESB, so if we are going to rate this on style it gets a F grade. I'll resist that temptation, JUST. I suppose that in...
I've been enjoying this over the course of the last few months at The Brick Store, Decatur, GA, USA. Great clarity on the pour to leave a mahogany colored body and plenty of ivory colored head and lace. Looks super. Very typical of the genre, with...
500 mL bottle, thanks to Dave for putting this one in the line up at his house on my recent trip home to England. Reviewed from notes, Summer 2007. Not the first time I've drunk this beer, but the overwhelming sensation is still the same this time...
Cask offering at Beer, Devon, England. Notes from the Summer 2007 trip. I forget the name of the pub. Sheep adorn the pump clip. Mildy acidic, but refreshing. Amber, soapy pour with some sweetness. The beer is balanced with obvious low carbonation...
On tap at Old Town, Greensboro, NC, USA. If I were scoring this within style I don't think it would do very well at all. Essentially this strikes me as an English IPA - by that I mean far too hoppy for an English style ESB, but not big enough on...
Taken from notes from England July 2007 - Cheers Chris! Bronze body with a head that disappears quickly. Ring of lace in 360° around the edge of the surface. Some minimal lace. Simple beer but solid. Simple malts up front with mild, citrus hops....
Thanks to Vancer as part of the CEO/Old Farts BIF. 12 oz bottle. This is a tricky one. From the name I was expecting some kind of Fest/Autumn/spiced brew. In the bottle I got what amounted to an American IPA. Good color, decent head and some...
22oz bomber, $3.99. Thanks go out to YonderWanderer for this trade. First off, a cubed ESB makes no sense at all. I don't know what the brewery is trying to achieve here, but what they end up with is a pretty aggressive, relatively unbalanced,...
Green's, Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. 500 mL bottle. $3.99. Very light orange pour that is very clouded - chill haze and some sediment? Medium head, but some nice lace. Quite a sweet, grainy nose. The hop character here is a bit out of whack for me. I...
$4.25, 12 oz bottle, Wild Wing Cafe, Marietta, GA, USA. Love this beer. My favorite style, and this is a really nice American example form a super brewer. Pour gives a lovely clear, rich brown color and an impressive head. Biscuit malts run across...
Updated notes 11/19/23 (pictured) NOTE: Scores on this fresh bottle would be; 4.5, 4.0. 4.5. 4.5. 4.5 Note: This is labeled as 4.8% these days as opposed to the previously recorded 5.0%. This has been classified as an English Brown Ale in some...
On-tap, Taco Mac, Decatur, GA, USA. $5.00. Nice clarity to the reddish brown pour with a very nice head and good lacing. Cream wisps are left behind on the glass. Aroma and upfront tastes are thinnish but distinguishable as grassy hops. Immediately...
22 oz Bomber, Green's, Ponce de Leon, Atlanta, GA, USA. Classic dark brown body with some nice lacing and some good creamy head retention. Mild lacing - good looker. Excellent bitterness. Nice malts and the bitterness is NOT a hop based one, rather...
12 oz single, Liquor Barn, Lexington, KY, USA. Yep, does a super job for an American version of the style. Dark orange pour with a lovely head and some first classs lacing. Some chill haze. Very fruity nose with equally fruity initial notes in the...
On tap Taco Mac, Decatur, GA, USA. $5.00. Light, APA mid orange color with a lot of chill haze. Extremely mild citrus hop flavor with some orange or lemon notes. Served way too cold and as a result the aroma is difficult to pick up, but whatever it...
Mid-amber pour with a lack of sustainable head and little lacing. Average example, with solid malt and some balance. Sweet biscuit aromas and tastes, and drinkable. Outside of that, not much to report here. Sessionable potential, but a distinct...
12 oz bought as a single from Riverside, Chattanooga, TN, USA. Nice color and design on the label. Large, frothy light head with a soapy texture. This is in line with the taste which is also somewhat soapy in nature. Biscuit aroma's come from the...
Pale, orange lucozade color, with a billowing ivory head. Huge and sweet biscuit malts dominate the nose. The taste is just the same with a classic English bitter feel where the sweet malts dominate around the low ABV and the mild hop presence....
Super example of the style. Very light, amber pour with great clarity. Head is very bubbly with a little lacing. Average retention. Aroma is typical full of sweet, biscuity malts. Repeated in the taste but with a little larger than expected, dry...
On tap, Taco Mac, East West Connector, Atlanta, GA, USA. Amber body with a strange lack of head, but sticky lacing! (I don't really understand that, but there you go). Dry and thin Pale Ale with some bitterness and malt balance which increases as...
Thick, golden looking beer with viscous appearance and a chill haze. Nice, small rocky head with some sticky lacing. Soapy aroma. Tastes are nicely balanced with some really quite aggressive hops, but balanced with some substantial malt sweetness....
ESB? I increasingly find that the American version of the ESB is somewhat removed from what I consider to be a true English Bitter - this was another example of that divide. Way too pale to fall into my version of the style, this smelled, drank and...
An attractive clear, copper colored body, with some rising bubbles and decent continued carbonation. Nice, small but perfectly formed dense white head and some really nice lacing with good retention. The aroma seems sweet and fruity. Up front...
Rather light, golden appearance with some cloudiness. Nice fluffy head, if somewhat small, with a little lacing and mild carbonation. Malty sweetnes in the aroma. A little dry in the finish, but this reflects the English ESB style nicely. Typical...
Surprisingly pale and slightly cloudy appearance with an impressive head and some very nice, sticky lacing. The body is Hefe in color and appearance. Points added for head and lacing, but subtracted for the color. Typical light bodied, low ABV...
Nice pour in terms of the head and lacing, but the rather drab brown body is not the most attractive I have ever seen. Aroma is sweet, light malts with a little sugary caramel. Taste starts off really light, with the malts coming trough strong with...
Utterly ridiculous carbonation/head that took an eternity to subside and actually spoiled the drinking experience. Lacing was good (eventually) after I had got to a point where the head had susided to a degree to make the lacing visible. Golden...
Utterly brilliant. Paler than expected pour, but with a striking clarity, this beer starts out in the glass by telling the drinker that it is delicious. Add in deep malt and hop aromas and you can start drinking this through your nose. Frothy head...
Incredibley simple ESB, and that's its strength. The pour was like a nitro, with plenty of those minute bubbles of carbonation that produce a tight, creamy and lasting head. Simple brown coloration - very clear. Aroma is very muted, as are the...
$3.49, Arbor Beverage, Douglasville, GA, USA. Lovely orange pour with a sensible head and some lacing. This beer is everything beers like SN Celebration and Rogue can never be, but would be better off trying to emulate. It's a hoppy and dry bitter,...
Potentially exciting, ultimately very disappointing. This beer is way too lightweight all around. Color is suspisciously golden (macro lager) rather than a darker, bitter color, aroma and taste are way too short and undemanding and the taste is...
$2.99, Greens Beverage, Atlanta, GA. Guess what? A GEM! Beautifully balanced, light body with stacks of malty flavor and a crisp, bitter finish. Pours and looks like a cask-conditioned real English Bitter with a great malt aroma and a lightness to...
Very odd color for an ESB - it's much too pale and yellow, but outside of that, pretty nice. Sharp and clean taste to this increasingly common brew. It has some characteristics of an amber ale. Pours really nicely with a couple of fingers worth of...
12 oz bottle from the $9.99 six pack. Guess what? Real beer. Not as good as drinking it only a few yards away from the brewery in Chiswick from a cask, but a pretty decent alternative out of the resplendent brown bottle that we get here in the US....