Arcadia Lake Superior ESB

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

Bottle, poured amber gold with a huge white head of foam, I thought the foam was a bit much, caramel fragrance, malt, faint hop spice bouquet, sweet fragrance, taste of malt, lots of carbonation, little thin on the palate, some hop bite on the tongue.

good bitter beer. this beer has great flavor. arcadia knows how to make a good brew

Red orange with eggshell white head. This one was a huge gusher but I think I still got some good stuff out of it. Smells like apple, floral and perfume, orange peel, and apricot. Apple, white grape, floral/perfume hop flavor, with some apricot as well. The palate is really dry, and overly carbonated but not too bad.

27-May-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Silphium, thanks Brad!) Fairly well carbonated when opening the bottle, but thankfully no gushing this time. The beer pours a cloudy, dark apricot color and is capped by a thick, yellow-ivory layer of foam that never settles below a quarter inch. Once again, I’m getting that flavor of apple skins that seems to be pervasive in most Arcadia beers. But not bruised apples, no, this is more like biting the skin of a crisp red apple where the skin tastes a little bitter. Apple skins in the aroma too. Honestly, this beer seems about the same as the last time I tried it, and it’s not good. Down the drain once again.

14-Oct-05 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Sully, thanks Mike) Incoming!!! I popped the cap off this bottle, and there was such a rush of escaping carbonation, the cap shot up toward the ceiling, bounced off the wall and nearly took my eye out. So if I make a lot of misspellings, you know why. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but the carbonation release was still pretty powerful. Pouring the beer was difficult, but I managed to get the entire 12 ounces into the glass, though the light-tan head kept threatening to overflow the levees. The body is a deep ruddy orange color, and fairly cloudy, but I can still see the army of carbonation bubbles speeding through the beer. My first sip is small, yet the beer explodes in my mouth, filling it instantly like I’ve inhaled from a balloon. As expected, the beer tastes and smells sweet, green apple-like, floral and soapy, but the flavor also shows a bit of astringent bitterness in the finish, so I’m not sure if this beer would be all that good when healthy. The body is medium, but otherwise isn’t pleasant on the palate. Boy, just not good, not remotely tolerable, and not gonna avoid the drain. See ya’! (4, 3, 3, 2, 5 = 1.7)

Reddish honey pour. Aroma is sweet caramels and honey, with a touch of butter. No heavy hop presence throughout. The body is creamy, with more diacetyl presence but in a good way. A mixture of bready and doughy malt mixes with the sweetness and helps to even this out. Probably better when fresh, but good none-the-less.

Copper colored body with a modest light beige head. The aroma is predominantly butterscotch with a dusting of herbal bitterness. Medium bodied, some caramel flavoring with a stronger earthy bitterness that lasts into the finish, along with a return of a slightly soured butterscotch. Odd.

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Overly carbonated for style. Some sweet malt flavor, but pretty light. Hop bitterness also is AWOL...and for a bitter, that can’t be a good thing. But not a drain pour by any means. Rerate 3/13/08: I was cruelly underating this brew...maybe a bad sample? I’ve gone from a 2.6 to a 3.3. I really enjoyed this beer...(still overcarbonated)..but nice balance between the caramel sweetness and a fairly rovust hop bitterness. Thus is actually a pretty decent session brew. Nicely done.

From a 12 oz. long neck brown bottle with no notched freshness date and a list of ingredients on the neck label. Like other Arcadia beers I’ve had, popped when open, poured a murky amberish copper with a overflowing foamy sticky white head, I was only able to pour half a bottle into a pint glass. Had a good piney citrus bitter aroma with some sweet maltiness in the background. Good carbonation and a smooth light bodied mouth feel, good drinkability. Had a delicious taste, piney with honey, a rolling fruity bitterness and a underlining sweet toasted barley maltiness with a dry, crisp bitter finish.