Great Divide HotShot ESB

Formerly brewed at Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Denver, Colorado USA

Bought this 12 oz bottle at Norm’s in Vienna, VA. Doesn’t pour very well. Thick, frothy white head and a clear copper pour. Sweet, malty aroma. Definitely a nice aroma. Wow this beer pours very terribly. Good malty taste. However, not as dry or bitter as it should be. No hotshot ESB here. But still pretty easy to drink. Decent none the less.

Bottle, from Julio’s. Month and week bottled F 1. Good nose, Sweet. Orange, caramel, apple, tad sourdough. Clean classic copper color, small head that faded quickly. Bitter sweet flavors, sour might be a better description. like aroma except I get a grapefruit instead of orange. Medium body, lite creamy/oily mouthfeel, spicy dry finish, has a zing to it. I’m not surprised Avey does a hoppy ESB. I might of guessed an APA or IPA if it was a blind tasting.

I tend to like ESB’s…. I also generally enjoy most of Great Divides offerings… well their 22oz line anyway; but this is a ridiculously average beer. Pours a nice looking copper/ amber body with a frothy off white head. The aroma is loosely skunky, odd hoppy notes of old damp socks and musty loafers. The malt added a nice biscuit and caramel back bone…. Overall this is not something I be buying again…. But the Imperial series I sure will!

This beer pours a clear light amber color with a thin soapy white head and a small amount of lacing on the edges of the glass. Aroma is piney, citrusy and yet somehow incredibly sweet...you can almost smell the caramel. Of course, it also has that ever so familiar aroma of walking through a marijuana patch as well..... Flavor is full bodied with a sweet malty flavor followed by an orange and pine tang of bittering hops. Mid-sip is dominated by caramel and raisiny flavors, the finish by pine cones. Dry semi-sweet finish, light on the carbonation. This brewery thus far just does not know how to make bad beer... another awesome beer from Great Divide.

Bottled. Sweet and fruity aroma, notes of light brown sugar and toasty malts combined with a moderate amount of citric hops, green apple and something in the background not unlike sourdough. Medium amber color, clear and filtered, with a thick, lasting head. Flavor profile is pretty well balanced between the sugary, toasty caramel maltiness and relatively powerful hops, which yield a piney, spicy flavor and light-medium bitterness, growing more pronounced towards the finish, still the beer’s final and lasting impression is that of sweet, sugary maltiness. Mouthfeel is well carbonated and lightly oily with a medium body. Perhaps not an excellent ESB but a passable one, no doubt.

Bottle. Pours light brown to bronze with a medium foamy off-white head. Sour grain malt aroma with faint citrus hops. Grain malt(corn) flavor with a hop finish. Light bodied and refreshing.

Clear coppery appearance, good head formation. Sweet malty aroma, faint hops and woody spice. Mildly fruity, malty palate with mild citric bite in the finish.

Pour is nice raddish amber with a big off white head...smell is very hoppy with lots of big citrus, soap, and pine...I’m with wiseblood in that I was expecting SOME malt in the aroma...taste had some more malt in it...nutty dough at first, turning deliciously bitter...nice ESB...