River Horse Special Ale ESB

Brewed by River Horse Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Lambertville, New Jersey USA

Nutty nose, leaves. Orange-amber color, frothy and foamy head. Light toaste body, artificial end - not hoppy, but bitter. Thin and quick. Weak, really. Not so good. Like a typical bad British ale actually.

The Lure:
Fruity, earthy hops float atop caramel-covered peaches. This appreciable balance is somewhat bothered by a waxy/bandaid-like phenomenon. Not unpleasant, but not particularly alluring.

The Festivities:
Caramel fruitiness resides in the first half of the sip, gradually leaving room for a growing earthy, wooden hop bitterness. As simple as that. The thinness of the malt is made even more obvious by the fact that too much carbonation is perceivable. A tired mouthfeel is thus evoked, only able to reproduce some watermelon fruitiness alongside the second half’s moderate hoppiness and ending dryness.

Transcendence:
That disco bar sure is branching out.

Amber orange color - small film of a head on top. Candy, some band aid, honey and caramel in the nose. Watery grass taste. Thin bodied .

Pours a yellow color with a white head. Aroma is very weak but has some wheat. flavor is again very weak. Texture is watery. not very good.

Pours golden/amber with small white head. Aroma is sweet, corn and grassy hops. Flavor is water, with a touch of corney sweet. Texture is watery.

Translucent, muddy orange in color with a saliva spackle for the head. Aroma is in line with sniffing a bag of barley on a brewery tour. Other aroma elements include dried pinto beans, hay, honey and straw hats. Flavor ensues as watery toffee. Neglected barley bags and homemade, unsalted, unbuttered potato chips drive the feeble attempt at an earthen edge. Tamale husks and brown rice bring up the rear. Weak, lucid and stretching on the palate. Balance favors water and dime-a-dozen malt, finishing as if a streak of honey were sliding down the side of a burlap sack. Dammit. Thanks for the bottle, Thaichile.

(12 oz bottle: Chevy Chase Wine & Spirits in Washington, DC) This is a bready, toasty, and very lightly bitter ESB that’s really failing to capture my attention. Not that it’s a bad tasting beer, it’s just too ordinary, and the hops is way too subdued for the style, almost like it’s an afterthought. The nose mostly just toasty, but it’s a very aromatic toastiness, which is maybe why I can’t smell anything else. Medium bodied with decent carbonation for a pretty easy to drink beer. Standard amber colored body with a slight haze. Small, off-white head dissipates rapidly to a tiny ring. Again, not bad, but this special ale is entirely forgettable.

Bottle purchased at Town and Country in West Springfield, MA. Mildly floral roasted cereal-like aroma. This aroma is faint at best. Mildly hazy copper color with virtually no head. Artificial fizziness that dissipates rapidly. Lifeless beer. Watery, toasty, mildly sweet caramelly and roasted. Some lingering astringency and a very minimal hop profile. Tastes more like an amber ale. If this is ale is "special", then my girlfriend is Jenna Jameson.