Affable English-style bitter brings stylish black tea pungency and raw-honeyed peat mossing to grape-leafed citric swirl. Light caramel malting and sweet-breaded sourdough sinew provides sugary backdrop for Ipswich-bottled moderation.
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BOULEVARD TASTING ROOM ESB
Classic English pub ale may be sessionable, but its body is only fair. Phenol hop astringency and musty earthen peat contrast teasing lemon spritz. Docile caramel malting and bread-crusted biscuit buttering need to be pushed forward. Nondescript, methinks, though very well-liked by enlightened Anglo proletariat.
DRAGONMEAD SIR WILLIAMS EXTRA SPECIAL BITTER
Worthwhile English-style ale (in limited edition bottles circa ’14) brings tea-like dewy peat earthiness and roasted tobacco crisping to resinous hop bittering. Underlying toffee sweetness adds contrast. Dried fig and musty raw-honeyed rye nuances seep thru.
MOTOR CITY GHETTOBLASTER ENGLISH MILD ALE
Dedicated to Detroit’s fertile music scene, highly accessible tawny-hazed blue collar fodder brings mild honeyed tea influence to crisp-watered dewy rye malts, earthen mineral graining and tangerine-dried tartness. Nutty respite pleats toasted biscuit bottom.
CIGAR CITY MINARET ESB
On tap at Orlando’s House Of Beer, delicate eggshell-creamed Extra Special Bitter provides dewy earthiness, silken minerality and reedy-hopped herbage for soft nitro-like setting. Glass-sugared red apple glaze fades into the ether alongside wispy floral bouquet.
(UNICORN) ROBINSON’S IRON MAIDEN TROOPER
Inspired by heavy metal vocalist Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden), nominal moderation drapes light caramel malting and hesitant corn-sugared sweetness across mild citric-perfumed Cascade hop bittering. Lemony tea midst ransacked by phenol spicing at biscuity pale-malted bottom.
OLDE HICKORY WILSON CREEK E.S.B.
Classic British Extra Special Bitter goes down easy. Spelt wheat flouring picks up dry rye toasting, honey nut breading and sweet tea sugaring. Soft earthen hop bittering adds rustic minerality to dry grain finish.
GOOSE ISLAND 25TH ANNIVERSARY ALE
On tap at Track 84, easygoing English-styled Extra Special Bitter layers rustic raw-honeyed tealeaf herbage atop roasted caramel malts, resinous dry-hopped rye breading and slimmest nuttiness. Vague orange peel bittering fades precipitously. Surprisingly inconsequential for quarter-century silver jubilee, especially considering brewery’s sterling heritage.
STRANGFORD LOUGH ST. PATRICK’S BEST ALE
Sessionable nickel-hued English bitter resembles an Irish Red Ale with its peat-malted barley whiskey nip and tea-honeyed soda breading. Slight mocha nuttiness affects buttered biscuit base. Frisky carbolic hop pep enlivens easygoing medium body.
VICTORY UNCLE TEDDY’S BITTER
On tap at Backyard Ale House, elegant hand-pumped, nitro-creamed, eggshell-frothed English Bitter (with slowly rising beige head) brings sweet tea essence to mossy peat earthiness, briny minerality and nutty respite. Orange-oiled lemon pit souring stays beneath the surface near rye-toasted doughy yeast base.
ROCKY POINT WINTER ESB
On tap at Shoreline Beverage, well-integrated Long Island nanobrewery’s curious hybrid will please its cold-weathered Anglo base. Dirty earthen peat graining provides Extra Special Bitter coating for wintry cinnamon-gingerbread spicing. Fig-sugared chocolate and cocoa malting underscores nickel-coppered medium body. Vegetal tinge hidden beneath.
ROCKAWAY ESB
On tap at Proletariat, upscale pale ale-like refresher (with wavering Extra Special Bitter tag) brings spritzy citric intrigue to dry rye influence, scattering earthen fungi musk amongst the moist dewy center. Brisk grapefruit-seeded orange oiling, zesty lemon-seeded tartness and distant vegetal whim seep into nut-grained pale malting.