One of the (few) really great things about living in Delaware is the many breweries we have in the state despite our relatively small population. Dogfish Head is obviously the most famous, but we also have Stewarts, Iron Hill, Fordham, Twin Lakes, Old Dominion, 16 Mile, Delmar Brewing Co, and Evolution Craft Brewing. Tonight I'm taking a look at Evolution's ESB.
The initial smell is malt dominant, with notes of caramel. There may be a touch of citrus hop aroma, but if so it's well buried, and the impression I get from it is more like the smell of ice tea. The aroma isn't terribly strong, so it's hard to pick much else out.
The beer's appearance is an orangish-copper color, clear, with no head to speak of. Just looking at it it seems very lightly carbonated.
The first flavors apparent in the mouth are a light caramel taste, with a bit of fruitiness. This gives way to a roasted quality and a rather strong bitterness in the back of the mouth. The bitter flavor is a bit dominant, and lingers for quite a while. There's a definite toasted quality to the beer as well. Other than the bitterness, there doesn't seem to be any hop profile to the beer.
In the mouth, the beer has a rather up front prickly carbonation. It seems to have a medium body, with a bit of coating in the mouth. It seems a little bit like hop resin. In any case, the beer definitely seems to have some substance to it.
Overall I found it to be fairly enjoyable, although not the best ESB I've had. As I understand it, the key to an ESB is balance, and the bitterness in this beer seems overly dominant. I'm actually wondering how old the beer is since the bitterness comes through without any hop character to it at all. I think I'd like to try this one again at some point when I know I have a fresh bottle.
- Adam
No comments:
Post a Comment