Lakefront Organic ESB

Brewed by Lakefront Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

(Bottled in 2/08, week 1, from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/maine/wiscasset target=blank>Treats) Pours slightly hazy medium-amber with three fingers of lightly amber-tinted off-white head. Head recedes to about 1/8" and stays. Aroma of caramel, vanilla and a bit of egg, slight whiff of pine. Mouthfeel is a little thin, fairly prickly but still has some smoothness. Lacing is a bit patchy and scattered. Has somewhat muted flavor of caramel and vanilla but taste seems to fade toward finish. A bit wooden-tasting. Bitterness is light to non-existent, esp. for the style. This really seems like an amber ale not an ESB.

Clear chestnut color with a decent bit of lacing. Sweet buttery D-licious aroma makes me think of candycorn. Taste is sweet with a grainy, astringent taste that finishes in a weird metallic acidy aftertaste.

Bottle pours a reddish copper color with a foamy tan head. Nice lacing around the glass. Aroma is mostly malty and sweet with some hints of fruit. Reminds me almost of a fruit juice mix of grape and appple with malts added. Flavor is interesting, light, and crisp. Some hop bitterness and spiciness with lively carbonation. I would have liked more bitterness in the aftertaste though. Definitely not bad for an organic beer.

The body is a not too dark. Kind of a golden brown body topped off with very little head. The aroma is pretty malty with a bit of a grape like aroma mixed in. The flavor is also pretty unspectacular with just a bit of malt and very little bittering hops. there is a bit of a grassy flavor as well with a hint of something sweet, maybe grapes again.

Coppery brown pour. Nose is caramel malt, brown sugar, some tannins, some hops. Tastes malty with backup hops, some mid-palate tannins, nuts, and figgy fruit, with a meedium palate heft.

Will re-rate if I can find a good bottle. This beer was in a bottle that had been on the shelf for at least a year. The bottle was coated with a sticky dusty layer of crud and I should have followed my instincts and left it in the store. But U.S. beers outside of the Northwest are hard to find. I really like ESBs and this one poured with no life, opaque appearance, and unpleasant smell. I took about three tastes and decided it had gone bad sitting on the shelf. So until I can find a newer example it rates a total of 1.1.

On tap at the brewery. Pours a clear brown with a foamy tanned head. Malty with hints of caramel. Mildly flavoured. Low carbonation. Bitter finish.

For a bitter, a surprisingly soft beer, with very mild hop characteristics. To a fault, really. It lacks the punch of top bitters.