Goose Island 20th Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Chicago, Illinois USA

This poured a beautiful copper in color with an off-white head that dissipated away. The nose showed off aromas of citurs (lots of orange with lemon), caramel and some floral hops. In the mouth it was medium-bodied showing the flavors from the nose and finishing quite bitter but not dry. This is a very enjoyable beer, just be ready for the bitter finish.

Bottle with wax, thanks sersdf. Ruddy brown with an off white head. Mellow, citric aroma, subdued malt, light hops, grapefruit. Flavor is rather tame. Watery finish with very fine bubbles. The golding comes through the most. Nice ESB.

Draft at Clybourn brewpub. Dark brown color, with decent white head. Aroma was of bitter hops. Yeasty malt flavor with hints of caremel in the taste. Moderate spice tastes comes through near the finish. Lingering taste of malts. More balanced than expected. Finish is very bitter.

Cask Conditioned at the GTMW 2008: I was lucky to have a few samples of this before the crowds came in... The beer has a slight coppery haze with a lush frothy white head which left very nice lace upon my glass. The aroma is classic British bittering hops but with some PNW fruity acidity too. Biscuity pale malts and a hint of ripened pear esters, I really didn’t any woody or barrel influence. The taste is right what I expected and honestly wanted. Moderate even handed bitterness balanced by pale and sweet malts. Some fruit and even a touch of pepper upon the finish. The mouth feel is velvety smooth and creamy, soft carbonation made this very drinkable. YUMMY STUFF, MIKEY LIKEY!!!

On tap @ Goose. Pours a hazy copper. The aroma was of floral and citrus hops. The flavor was actually pretty well balanced. There was some sweet malt, but also a little bit of citric bitterness. Well done.

On tap at Goose – Clybourn. Poured slightly hazy apricot with a creamy cap of beige head. The aroma picked up soft floral and almost meaty notes.. medium-skinned fruits as well.. not bad, but didn’t draw me in. Sweeter fruity and toffee notes in the flavor with dry medium fruit skin bitterness surrounding.. fruity and oaky notes on the finish.. tasty. About medium-bodied on the palate and quite dry with a spicy back-end.. this grew on me as I drank more.

Cask: pour is hazed coppery amber with a thin tight bubbled off white head...smell is toasty and sweet at first with a citric bitterness coming out...taste is toasty at first with a chewy lingering bitterness 7 3 7 3 16
Draft: pour is coppery amber but not as ruby as the casek and a thin off white head...smell is much sweeter with some caramelized sugar and has less of a hop presence...taste is very sweet with lots of toastyness and caramel and a faint metallic citric bitterness...not as hop forward as the cask...the draft will be my actual rating, as I think it will be around longer than the cask...

On tap @ Goose Island Clybourn. Pours a a dark slightly murky copper. Nice hop filled aroma with some sweeter malts. Very well balanced beer, some floral aspects present. Nice medium to fuller body. Pretty good beer