Redhook ESB

Brewed by Redhook Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Woodinville, Washington USA

8th August 2008. On tap at GBBF. Fruity, clean light brown beer. Soft palate, sweet with a nice generic fruitisness the runs throughout. Very nice!

12 oz Bottle. Copper in Color, sustains a nice frothy head. Hoppy aroma that is not too overpowering. Hops and carbonation dance on the back your tounge. Mild to moderate bitter finish. Excellent beer to introduce bitters to a newbie.

12 oz bottle- Pours copper with decent lacing, aroma isn’t much, almost nonexistent. The flavor tastes like a pale ale to me, a very boring beer from a very boring brewery.

Poured from bottle into tall glass. Clear amber-orange with thin head that leaves some light lacing. Smell is faint but detected caramel, biscuit, fruit, light hops. Clean malty taste, with a mixture of bread, fruit and slightly sweet caramel balanced by a light hop bitterness, that somewhat carries over to the aftertaste. Moderate to high carbonation (a true ESB would be lower), medium body, slightly dry finish. Easy to kick back with this one. Nothing special, but it has become a trailblazer for the craft beer movement and you have to respect it for that.

Truly a good strong bitter, hazy amber color, bit of a malty-caramel taste, foamy head, been drinking this for years, great beer for when you’re in the mood to really drink beer.

Poured an amber red color, bittersweet aroma, medium bodied mouth feel.

This was the beer that got the wheels really turning for me in the micro realm "way back" in like 2003; nowadays the ESB always tastes the same but for some reason I feel differently about it every time I drink it. I dunno, all in all it’s OK. There are much better American "ESBs" such as Alaskan and Bridgeport, but this one defies the style somewhat, somehow. It’s "just a beer", and, I suspect, proud of it.

As said below, Redhook quality on this ESB, very drinkable, Rusty amber color, malt and a decent finish. Better ESB’s to be found, but this one aint bad.