McNeills Extra Special Bitter Ale

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Pours a nice peachy golden with some head. Significant English hop aroma.It was a nice bitter, with a bit of a background edge. FIne drinking but not the best bitter I have tried. Picked it up in August, but did not notice it expired in September, but I do not think that would make a significant impact.

McNeill’s ESB is one of my favorite beers. The method of dry-hopping adds a pleasant floral aroma to an alreadfy seriously-hopped, well balanced English ale. Near perfect!

Sampled at brewery Pours a medium brown with a off white head. Aroma is caramel malt,citrus hop and some fruit. Flavor is slightly sweet yet bitter from the hops. medium to full bodied. A decent esb

Pleasant, earthy and bitter aroma. Very inviting. The flavor is similar, and even more bitter than I expected from the somewhat malty-sweet aroma. The flavor does not have much sweetness at all, and is predominately bitter hops.

So I bought this knowing it was past its prime, because the last Mcneill’s brew I had past its prime was pretty freakin’ good (God bless the funk!) - the cap less popped off than it did tear off, leaving some interesting crud around the lip of the bottle (oh yea!) - cloudy orange pour, with small ring of lace - aroma of biscuity british malt, highly floral hops, apricot, and some slight musty, earthy, almost barnyardy qualities (there’s some of that funk starting to form in this one) - citrusy palate up front, but a lot of the malt flavor seems to have become stale, making room for some oxidation and a tiny bit of sourness that combines well with the hop bitterness and herbal flavors - apricots and peaches arrive late - lingering hops - fresh this is probably awesome, and with a little more time in the bottle to let those micro-organisms work their magic will probably make it awesome in a different way - for now it’s just pretty good.

Bottle via Thaichile, thanks for another great one, Mark! Pours a cloudy, rusty, amber color with a substantial beige colored head. Aroma is grassy, cramel malt, floral hops, bread. Flavor is apricot, caramel, citrus, bread. Palate is medium bodied, medium carbonation, nice spicy, floral-like finish. Good stuff here.

Good looking ESB. Nice bit of hops on the nose, but not overwhelmingly so. Grapefruit up front, which balances out evenly. Got this one cask conditioned from McNeill’s, I feel like this is probably the only way to have it.

Bottle (rating from August 2005 notes). A cloudy apricot color with a laced white head. Smooth with well rounded and robust flavors. Peach and floral notes. A very nice ESB.