Avery 14er ESB

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Boulder, Colorado USA

Bottle. Citrus/perfume aroma, with orange, crisp flavor, nice bitterness aftertaste.

Clear orange pour with a rich creamy white head. Aroma is slight hop spice. Tons of lacing. Flavor is deliciously chewy hops.

12oz, no date. Pours a clear orange with a large 3 finger frothy off-white head. Aroma has some perfumey citrusy hops, some biscuit and caramel malts--more biscuity though--with a little bit of dust. Flavor is nothing floral and perfumey hops again with some stale bread, also some minimal caramel sweetness. There is a moderate amount of bitterness throughout to a lingering finish. A little watery, light sharp carbonation. This isn’t my favorite style, but not a terrible representation of it. I don’t necessarily need to have this one again.

Bottle.

Pours yellow amber with a modest head and an equally modest aroma - bits of cracker and some citric hops, but both are restrained. The flavor brings a bit of malt forward, but mostly I get a metallic and watery hops with a bit of citrus that leaves me uninspired. In places, hints of flavor combinations that I associate with a good ESB start to break through, but they’re weak and the beer lacks that sort of rich orchard flavor profile that I associate with the best ESBs.

I’m afraid this one is not a strong example of the style.

Bottle. Clear copper color with a beige head. The aroma pretty much tells the story: There’s not much going on. There’s a slightly bitter finish but overall, this beer lacks punch.

Bottle. Pours golden amber with a fizzy white head. Aroma of malt and butterscotch. Light and watery texture and a tad fizzy on the tongue. Flavor of toffee, butter rum candy, honey, and herbal hops. Bitter finish with some green apple notes that dissipate as it warms. Not very good cold, and much better at room temp.

Huge head on this beer jumps up from the glass. It might be the most energetic foam I have ever seen. Visually the foam is the most prominent aspect here but there is a nice golden color as well. A nice pleasant nose is very noticeable. It is mostly hoppy but offers floral notes. Some orange is deeper down. Almost 20 minutes after pouring I am still waiting for foam to dissipate! First taste is one of hops that light up the back of the throat. Malts begin to show up after a few drinks and a taste of honey with it. Bitterness is a continuing theme here and it is nicely balanced with the tart hops and sweeter malts. I was sorry to see the glass empty and found this to be a lively and well balanced beer. Nicely done.

Pours with a frothy, initially one-finger thick, tan colored head that disappears after a bit. The beer is a clearish, orangish copper color that has touches of red to it. The aroma smells nicely of crackers, toasted grain and biscuits up front. If you dig just a touch there is lots of citrus character, leaning towards grapefruit and sweet candied orange peel. I really like the mix of hop and malt in the aroma here, hopefully the taste will live up to it.

Tingling hops and carbonation greet my tongue upon my first sip. It is even lightly tart, which I think is a combination of the carbonation, the citrus hop notes, and the relatively dry character of this beer. A nice, almost biting, but quite prevalent none-the-less, bitterness finishes this beer off. The citrus notes in this beer, while predominantly orange-like, definitely have a lemon-like edge to them. Toasted biscuit like grain notes are not as noticeable as in the aroma, but still make up a large part of the flavor profile.

This beer is very quaffable; light on the palate yet it has enough flavor to keep things interesting. I could definitely see myself enjoying a few of these in a sitting. There is something here that does not quite seem to mesh though. I am not sure what it is, and it is not enough to keep me from enjoying this brew.

<font size=-4>Purchased: <a href=http://www.58degrees.com/>58 Degrees & Holding Co., Tucson, AZ<font size=-1>