Climax Extra Special Bitter Ale

Brewed by Climax Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Roselle Park, New Jersey USA

draught at Hop Devil, New York. not as hoppy as expected, this was a fairly malty, pale amber, beer, with slight caramel flavour.

Sample at PCBF 08. Pours a translucent amber with a medium creamy/bubbly off white head. Aroma of nice grainy malts, biscuit, nuts, some honey and a touch of hops. The flavor was much of the same grainy maltiness/biscuit along with a nice touch of hop flavor and bitterness. REally like the malty nose on this one.

Coloring, aroma, and flavor are all spot on for the style. The buttery, biscuit flavor with an underlying nutty character, and lower carbonation make this easy and enjoyable to down. Lacing on the glass was above average. A nice, well made, ESB. The best I’ve had from Climax, for sure!

Draught: Difficult to smell because of cigarette smoke in the bar. Smelled of caramel malts and floral hops. Poured amber in color with a small, rocky, white head that lasted throughout. Very good lacing. Very hazy. Light to medium bitter flavor. Tastes of caramel malts, floral hops, blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate malts. Light to medium body. Thin, watery texture. Average carbonation Bitter, salty, malt finish.

Just about a perfect beer. Wonderful biscuity malt aroma with a slight hint of fruity esters. Perfect body, mouthfeel, and palate cleansing bitterness for the style. Definitely deserves its place in Michael Jackson’s list of the top 500 in the world!

Crystal clear amber with a tart fruity aroma blessed with a slap of toffee malt. Head was weak due to growler packaging. Very balanced with a light toasty malt character and a nice rise in hop bitterness near the swallow. Lightly bitter lingering aftertaste leaves the tongue wanting more. Nice nutty earthiness.

pint at Barcade. Clear amber in color. The aroma of this beer was predominately sweet caramel and grains, didn’t get much of any hop character at all in the aroma. Taste is sweet malts, caramel, maybe some dry munich, overall alot of malt and some light fruits and not much hop presence, which I would have expected in an ESB. Slightly cloying, and very difficult for me to drink a full pint, I quit after 2/3 of the glass.

Pours from growler with almost no head. Aroma is very sweet almost honey-like with some sort of strange fruity notes almost like pear and apple-not the usual fruitiness i associate with good ESBs. Flavor is also strangely fruity and yeasty with some sweet malts and slight hop bitterness resulting in a pleasant palate and savory aftertaste. Overall, Climax products are overpriced in my opinion and this is no exception. Still, it is an interesting brew.