Summit Extra Special Bitter

Brewed by Summit Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Summit Extra Special Bitter 12 oz bottle Moderate pour in a goblet Recent brewing, embittered 07/07 Poured a brownish amber with a moderate fizzy mostly diminishing head. Smelt of strong grassy and resiny hops, moderate caramel malt. Taste was upfront strong earthy hops and light to moderate sweet caramel followed by more of the same, with diminished caramel sweetness and an earthy wet leaves yeast on a moderate to long finish. Palate was light bodied, watery to dry, lively carbonated and moderately astringent. Overall, lots of hops here! Very bitter, almost over the top, but it fits here. Very dry in the British style. It could use a touch of roundness or complexity in flavor, but the basics are dead on.

On tap at the brewery. OK, Summit isn’t the most adventurous or experimental brewery so I guess it will always struggle to excite the beer geek in us all, but it does produce some pretty solid offerings. I thought this was one of the best, and in a noticeably British style. If you want big, brassy, bold hops, this isn’t the beer you are looking for as the hops are quite earthy and fruity/spicy/tangy in a way that is quite common in British beers but rather difficult to describe accurately. Malt is more prominent than hop in the flavour profile but is, again, quite earthy, dusty and dry, again in a quite British style. All in all then, a pretty authentic and rather enjoyable experience. Perhaps a little gassy for my British palate. Oh and its a rather handsome deep amber colour with a slight reddish tinge.

From tap pours nice amber color with a good amount of head. Nice bitter taste with a quick finish.

Pours a deep coppery amber with a thin lasting head. Aroma is willametty hops- tea, light citrus and somewhat earthy and a light caramel backbone. Good toasty malt flavor, lightly sweet balanced by some light citrus and floral hops- clean bitter finihs. Decent ESB.

Sample from tap at the brewery. Pours amber with a light brown head. Aroma is soft malty, slight fruity. Flavour is lovely sweet with a good fruitiness. Finish is bitter sweet.

Session beer! Very nice stuff. Really well done. Poured with a nice head, little lace. Rich reddish orangish dark amber. has a certain dryish cast. Chewy but not too much. Nice finsih.

33 cl bottle, Fargo. Dark orange-brown colour, Heavy malt and spice aroma, smooth with a nice bite at the end.

Amber color with small off-white head. Grassy and hoppy nose. Little bite of hops up front that mellows to a light malty finish. Medium body with clean finish.