This beer is an interesting concept, an English ESB made with German Hops. Pours a clear copper color with a wispy pale tan head. The aroma is nice and hoppy with notes of orange peel, lemon grass, a soft piney herbal character and lots of spicy hop notes. The beer is still a tad cold, but is lightly sweet with a solid hop bitterness that starts in the middle and moves through to the end of the finish. This beer is quite light on the palate, it goes down quite easily. The hops are actually a bit abrasive in this beer, this beer is really balanced towards the bittering hops (a new thing, in my experience, from most of Nimbus’ malt accentuated brews). The hop flavor has a hint of citrus, a smidge of lemon, but lots of herbal and pine notes. As this beer warms up I get soft notes of caramel maltiness, but it is still quite subservient to the hops. It will be interesting to see how this beer mellows over time, will it have a chance for the hops to mellow a bit to allow the malt to come through.
<font size=-4>Sampled: <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/nimbus-brewing-company/1017/>
Nimbus Brewing, Tucson, AZ<font size=-1>
