Make-up week #1 is Redhook's ESB. From their website:
Brewed in the style of a traditional British ESB (Extra Special Bitter), we’ve been making ESB continuously since 1987, and it’s now the benchmark for the Amber beer category. Despite having “bitter” in its name, Redhook ESB is really not that bitter at all. This brew is all about the balance of caramel malt sweetness completed by spicy, citrusy hops.
- Abv 5.8%
- IBUs 28.0 IBU
This is beer is an unintended surprise as part of this project. I thought about doing 52 different beers in a year as a project to discover new beers. This beer is a rediscovered beer that we’ve had many times, but not in two years during which my beer world has expanded dramatically. It is nice to actually taste it rather than simply drinking it.
ReplyDeleteI cannot help but wonder if this is a slightly hoppy version of a traditional esb. There is a very solid hop nose to it and the hops jump-out of the glass at the front end of the taste. They quickly dissipate sort of there to say “hello” and then quickly taking-off. There is a good malt backend. Drinking this beer as a part of this project reminds me just how good of a beer it is.