Grand Teton XX Bitch Creek Double ESB

Brewed by Grand Teton Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Victor, Idaho USA

1 liter, flip top bottle, shared courtesy of Josh. Poured a deeper amber, almost brown, color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of toffee, citrus, caramel, floral, and some nuttiness. Tastes of toffee, citrus, earthy, and I was getting some chocolate. Nice. My only beef is these 1 liter bottles!

( 1L flip-top, bottled 9/25/2008, courtesy of mar ) Pours a hazy amber body with a small beige head. Aroma of roasted malt, caramel, nuts, peat, and citrus. Flavor of caramel, roasted malt, toffee, light chocolate, and juicy citrus with a bitter finish.

1Liter bottle-pours a rich frothy tan head that laces and cloudy brown/orangy color. Aroma is great northwest resin/citrus hops, background medium malt. Taste is great northwest resin/citrus-tangerine hops, earthy, secondary medium/dark malt-roasty/slightly burnt/chocolate. An enjoyable cross of American and English, a little thin on finish.

Chestnut color with a hint of garnet when held to the light. Smaller light tan head. Big malt and big hops scents. Caramel and earthy malt aromas blend with pine and citric hops. Solid strong aroma. Good mix of malt and hops albeit this does come across more like a strong american ale than an ESB. Caramel and toasted malt dominate in the front. FLoral and lightly citirc hops in the middle balance the sweetness. Finish has a sharp bitter bite that distacts from the overall smoothness of this one. Spicy linger that ends up thin in the malt department. The malt great in the front, but seem to languish in the end. a decent strong ale.

Bottle: Dark mahogany color with a full puffy brown head. Nice hoppy chinook aroma with a malty caramel note similar to the regular. The body is bitter and there’s a bit more going on in the hop department but this seems like maybe a 1.25 X bitch creek, not XX. Bitch creek is great and this is up there too though. I’m just always disappointed with the hype in the XX series.

1liter bottle from BevMo in Natomas. Very dark ruby color with a vigorous light tan head. Aromas of roast malt and floral hop. Roughly medium in body with creamy carbonation. Flavor is a bit gritty, and highly chocolate. Hop is more floral than anything. Not really dry, and the bitter might be more from the malt than the hop. I doubt England has ever seen a chocolate ESB, but who knows. Well worth trying.

Giant wax-covered flip-top (stop doing that!).. dated 9/26/08. Poured medium garnet with a fluffy, sticky cap of dark tan head.. looked great! The aroma picked up redder fruits, biscuits, and brown sugar, accented by spicy earth and more residual brown sugars.. sweet overall and well-balanced. The flavor had raisins, other dark fruits, and bread at the core.. fruity vinegar tartness was laced throughout.. brown sugar and toffee were scattered around the edges.. finished warm and a bit sour, too heavy to be refreshing. Medium-bodied with only OK balance on the palate (not sure if the tartness was supposed to be there).. lots of residual graininess and warmth on the finish.. this was most certainly solid, but it showed age and was likely better a year ago.

Poured a dark amber color with a small, light tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of floral hops, pine, citrus, caramel, brown sugar, and nuts. Taste of caramel malts, tobacco, nuts, citrus fruits, molasses, grapefruit, and alcohol in the finish.