Full Sail Equinox

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Hood River, Oregon USA

Bottle. Dark honey/light brown body with a thin ring of bubbles. Nose-fresh honeycomb. Taste-bitter, light malt, hay, seems top me like the bitter is out of control with respect to the malt. Not bad. A true bitter, I suppose.

ESB but in the Northwest tradition--an aroma like an IPA. Caramel, floral, tea, more caramel. Drinkable.

2006 Brewmaster Reserve - Pours hazy amber (looks like an ipa) with light head. Aroma has notes of sour citrus and hops. Flavor is malt and citrus followed by musky hops. Definitely not a traditional ESB but nicely put together.

Poured a clear orange-amber color with a small white head. Hoppy aroma that was soapy, perfumey and a light citrus. Malt came up quickly behind it. Malty flavor with a moderately bitter finish. Some lemon notes at the end. Low carbonation. Light to medium bodied.

Pours amber with a medium white head. Smells very odd yeasty smell of barnyard is present with some molasses notes and floral and grapefruit smells as well. Citrus and yeast flavors come through in the taste. Seems hoppy at first but flavor becomes very yeasty. Very weird ESB not my thing.

A good session beer. Reasonably priced, not too high in alcohol, and not too extreme in flavors. Hoppier than a traditional english ESB, but still well balanced between hops and malt. Nice light body with a refreshig aftertaste. A good effort by Full Sail.

I feel like I am a little too soft on these beers, but I guess I only pick good ones to rate. This ones lovely new penny in color with a pillowy head that fades quickly. Can’t smell much-- roast caramel malt, I guess giving away to a sharp lemony tartness. It tastes good. Wonderfully rich and round body that playfully gives way to a sharp but correct bitterness that refuses to linger unpleasently. I guess that is thanks to that soft malty sweetness that is always lingering in the background with this one. Really a nice beer, deserving of its high-esteem on this site.

(22 oz bottle: $3.49 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) The bitter and hoppy flavor of Equinox stands out as prominently as the bright yellow label, so Full Sail has proudly brewed a West Coast version of an ESB for sure. The hops are piney and resiny rather than citrusy, and the grainy malt shows little sweetness, but has a somewhat husky character. Dusty and chalky in flavor and mouthfeel as well, but as always, I’m enjoying this component. Body and carbonation are medium. Dusty and hoppy in the nose as well. The beer is hazy, orange-amber in color. No more than a quarter inch of creamy, off-white head forms on the pour, and that eventually settles to a ring. Patches of doily-like lacing remain on the glass. This took a lot of effort to finally get on the shelves of my BevMo, but it was worth it. Another solid effort from Full Sail.