Schlafly Winter ESB

Brewed by Saint Louis Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Maplewood, Missouri USA

Bottle. And a pretty damn decent ESB. Amber pour with a mostly white head. Caramel malt, rye, citrus hops, and a slight nose of canteloupe. Flavor is pretty nice and has some good malt, grains, caramel, citrus hops, and the finish is slighty bitter. Nice for the style.

Comes to the table copper-orange in color with a solid, thick, white, very dense head. Aroma contains a lot of grassy hops a, some citrus, light malt as well as a sour aroma as well. Flavor contains a grassy hoppiness up front and ends with a great pine flavor with some light malt notes. Beer is very bitter. Overall, I liked this offering a lot and really enjoy the pine bitterness at the end.

12 oz bottle purchased from Frugal MacDoogal’s in Nashville. Poured a hazy gold/amber color with a one finger, fizzy white head. The aroma was caramel and hops. The flavor was caramel malt, with a seriously bitter finish. I think this is a pretty good example of the style, but not my favorite.

Bottle pours clear copper with a small white head. Hop and caramel aromas. Taste is caramel and hops on the front side finishes with hints of light cirtus/ melon. Bitter finish. Simple flavors, but well done.

on tap at schlafly’s tap room in st. louis. pours a very attractive looking clear copper, off white small head, slight lacing. musty, malty aroma. flavor is first leathery, musty malt, followed by some hoppy bitterness and a hint of pine. light bodied, very dry finish. quite enjoyable. this one surprised me. it gets more complex as it warms.

Poured an amazingly transparent copper. White head that lasted for a while with some lacing. Nose is fairly faint. Kinda malty but not too much I could pick out. Flavor is grains. Definitely get barley and rye in there. Short finish. One of the driest tasting beers I’ve had in a while but overall fairly mild.

Amber beer with fluffy head that leaves decent. A fine balanced ESB that goes down smooth-lots of rye maltiness and cascade hops. Hints of earth, melon and spruce.

Draft at Bottleworks. Maybe I’m too picky when it comes to ESBs, but I was underwhelmed by this one. Poured a nice rich copper color with minimal head, looks like I would expect, in a good way. Nose is pretty muted, a little bit of British hops in the nose, followed by some spice, which is probably the rye. The taste is really where I was puzzled. I didn’t really get the bold malt character I would expect, but this is a pretty dry ESB as well. Overall, drinkable (particularly as it warmed), I’ll need to go back.