Clipper City Heavy Seas Winter Storm (2005+ -- Imperial ESB)

Brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Baltimore, Maryland USA

Pours beautifully with a gorgeous foamy head. Glass laces nicely as I drink. The aroma is full of citrius and hop flavor. The taste is of toasted malt and citriusy hops with a lot of spice! This beer finishes bitter with a lot of warmth. A good winter beer!

Category 5 Ale. Clear semi-dark rusty brown colored body, very small head. Hoppy, pungent fresh nose, some plum and port scents sitting amid a heap of English hops. Nice smelling. Chewy and sticky up front, more rough and bitter and coarse burnt toast on the back, finishing with dry cedar, caramel and nuts. Good stuff, though a little too bitter for my liking.

The color was amber/orange. There was very small floating sediment. The head was thing, off-white, fizzy. The aroma is alcohol and fermented fruit. The flavor was waxy, a little coppery, fermented fruit, and candy. The palate was smooth and well carbonated. The finish was warm.

Pour is a re-brown with a huge white head. Aroma is mostly oily hops with some dark malts in there. Flavor is caramel and dark chocolate with some tart berryness. Pretty decent but a little thick and the alcohol does make an appearance.

12 oz bottle VIA trade (thanks to whoever sent this). Pours a clear reddish brown with an averge sized beige head. Nose is floral with a bit of lemon. Taste starts sweet, then some toasted grainiess, and finishes with a lot of grassy and floral hops, with some pininess as well. Aftertaste is both sweet and bitter, with some soapiness, and a bit of astringancy. Body is medium, almost syrupy due to the resiness hops and heavy maltiness, and the carbonation is medium. Alcohol is pretty evident for only 7.3%.

Good beer and interesting style. Something I would drink as the weather cooled.

Not nearly as good as the beer that first bore this name, a nice attempt to "double" a style that is probably pretty difficult to "double", way too malty, overly sweet, over-the-top heavy, very filling, more like a syrup than a beer, very disappointing, especially seeing as though I enjoy ESB’s so much, very lacking the hop department, only a little spiciness toward the back & in the finish, not a very enjoyable beer experience but some decent numbers for some of the flavors & for the attempt in "imperalizing" a bitter

My Bottom Line:
Candied berries ooze from the luscious caramel maltiness, dancing in unison with the assertive earthy and resinous hoppiness. Not as fragrant as it is flavorful, this friendly muscleman still is a joy to converse with.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam covers the translucid yet snowy copper.
-The earthy, wooden hop nose is modest and pleasant with its citrusy edges, but it doesn’t announce the entire range of flavors to come.
-The portly maltiness is one of this beer’s best features.
-The expansive carbonation thankfully breaks on the tongue quite easily.
-Whatever style you call it, it’s a great beer.
-The best before date is precocious.

Bottle; best before April ’07.