River Horse Special Ale ESB

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

Clear brown-amber body, no head. Malt-forward aroma of tart brown malt and husks. The aroma has promise in a "oh boy a nicely sweet beer" but it turns out to be not all that interesting. Husky, tart bready flavor with flower petals and stem. All malt in this one and it’s not well done.

The aroma is hugely honey, pie crust, sour grains. I thought the aroma was too strong and not what I like in an aroma. The body is a nice amber color with a thin white head. The palate seems to be really flat and watery. The flavor tastes like honey and cornbread with butter. Not very exciting. I could do without this one.

copper brown color nice well laced white head visable carbonation. smells of honey light carmel some plum. Light body. Very light flavor no real bittering not much like an ESB.. some honey notes a bit of grain some ueber weak peaches. To small.

Undated bottle, but these just arrived on the shelf at A Street Wines, so it shouldnt be too old. But then I open it and am not so sure. Head is small, rapidly fizzling to a ring of bubbles, beer is copper to very light auburn-amber and though the bottle has no sediment left in it whatsoever, the beer does have a decent chill haze. No lacing on the glass, head is off-white. Aroma of sour cherries gone bad, cherry pie filling, pie crust, sourish mashed grains, very dry, old, stale caramel and a touch of old flowery hops. Flavor is puzzling. Seemingly 100% attenuated, there really is no sweetness in this at all. Papery, astringent, sourish and with a strange bubbliness and yet a watery texture. Cornbread, old peaches, dry grains. Hoping this is a bad/old bottle but judging from the other ratings, probably not. The beer rating average by month is interesting on this beer. It has gone steadily downhill.

Small fizzy head, copper color. Smells of flowers, honesy and a sweetness that seems to predominate most of the River Horse brews. Light ot Medium body with a watery texture, soft carbonation and a mettallic finish. Sweet and slightly hoppy with tones of sour in the finish. Not one of the best ESBs I have ever had.

Poured a clear effervescent dark amber with a large fizzy off-white head. Aroma is sweet and mildly fruity, but nothing too pronounced or interesting. Taste is floral and fruity but overwhelmed by dry toffee. Plain and unexciting, but I can see this is as a safe session ale for craft beer beginners.

Cloudy copper body with very little head. Less than potent aroma, lightly malty and earthy. Overall a very muted flavor, includes run of the mill malt flavor, a mild herbal taste and no sign of hops. Slow arriving bready aftertaste.

12 oz bottle. Hazy copper with a thin white head. Small spicey aroma with just a bit of malt. Light malty taste that is somewhat "earthy". Very light and goes down easy. Nothing special but drinkable.