Peoples Pint Hope Street ESB

Very deep amber coloured beer. Thin white head. Aroma is quite sweet and malty. A touch of caramel and some soft light cocoa. A touch of soft earthy hops as well. Flavour is pretty pretty solid as well. Sweet and toffeeish but there aren’t any off-flavours. A lingering sweet caramelly finish with a little bit of light stickiness. A decent, if slightly too sweet, sessionable beer.

My Bottom Line:
Toasted and caramelized malts benefit from sturdy, spicy hopping and firm leafy bitterness, building a resolute pint of Extra Special Bitter.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam sits atop the nearly clear copper.
-Even though the flavor profile is much hoppier than their Pale Ale’s (which is not usually the case in the USA), I found it to be still balanced.
-The mouthfeel is healthily lean and softly carbonated.
-The hop bitterness is both leafy and earthy.

On tap at the brewpub.

on tap-pours an off white head and copper color. Aroma is medium malt-peat, herbal hops. Taste is medium malt-peat, herbal hops. Semi-dry finish. Some Irish red character.

The initial pour starts with soda-like large bubbles, but minute bubbles come up from the bottom and replace the big ones as they pop. The settled head is only a single layer thick. The lace is minimal. The color of the brew is solid brown and hazy--light glows through the glass. Chocolate and caramel aromas; light floral hop in the background. Somewhat earthy. Think: Highly hopped brown ale. Great balance. Powerful darker malts (crystal and chocolate?) are strong but still offset by the bitter hop. Not a delicate beer--full flavored and full bodied. The aftertaste is a long lasting hop pellet.

Cask sample. Pours copper with a creamy white head. Smells of caramel, rosey, earthy. Tastes sweet and malty with an earthy finish.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy brownish red with a thin white head with good retention. Aroma was a bit sour almost like a Flemish style. Taste was sour malts and ???? Not much to say about this beer.

Had on cask at the brewpub. Kent and Goldings hops were promising. Light amber colour. Low carbonation of course but also quite understated hops. Sessionable, average cask ESB.

Hazy, dark reddish-copper body with a darinty, tiny-bubbled head. Slightly sweet and mostly sour aroma, bitterness and mustiness. This mustiness stays with the beer in the flavor as well, giving it an interesting character and a little more depth than som other ESBs. However, it unfortunately finishes pretty thin. It is even a bit watery Even so, the beer is very drinkable, and probably the best beer I’ve had from this brewery so far.