Summit Extra Special Bitter

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

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.

Gorgeous fiery amber with a softly compacted capping of ivory foam. Lasting, only, but a while...keeping a whisp of bubbles at the collar and some spotty lacing is spread across the glass. Aroma has a soft malted display of light earthy breadyness mixed with a feathery grassy/herbal hop note. Taste is clean with a nice tender snap of toffee toasted malting and a nice rounded edge of grassy/woodish hops. Finish is where alot of subtle fun enters in as the toasty factions grow over a slight sweetness and some sequential herbal-like notes of aged cedar wood. The subtle play is quite nice in the finish on this one. Grows on ya from sip to gulp. Feel is adequately smooth and low key in the carbonation department as its medium body has a glossy, creamy puffed texture with a delicate push of toastyness and grassyness. And as all ready stated, the finish is quite nice. Builds well and with a decent length to its character. Most ESB’s are pretty damn sessionable, this is no different. Sustantially drinkable. A decent effort and about what I’ve come to expect out of Summit. Good presentation and a clean profile make all the worth while effort to go ahead and drink a bunch of.

A pleasant surprise. From a 12-oz. bottle, this pours a slightly cloudy reddish amber with an eggshell head. Very good lacing. Sweet malty, bready aroma. First taste is nutty toffee malt with a quick dose of spicy hops. More depth than I expected--and a good, clean finish. The palate seemed suprisingly like a tap beer, rather than bottled. This is very smooth & easy-drinking. An excellent buy.

Special thanks to Shannon for hauling this one back from Minnesota! Pours a clear deep rich mahogany red with small latticed short lived head. Nose of the bottle smells rich, strong hoppy with a distinct deep roasty malt. In the glass the aroma is mostly caramel, with spicy fruity/floral hops. Starts sharp and bitter quickly giving way to balanced sweetness that lasts throughout. Roasty, but not overly. In fact, the entire beer is a loud subtle. As I’ve noticed in Summit, not always a tight fit to the style, but a great beer nonetheless.

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.

Pours an orange bordering on a flat copper. Aroma is a bit fruity, copper metalic (in a good way), and caramel. Smooth and fruity at first and then gets to a nice bitterness. A great beer.

Poured from bottle into water glass at work. Color shifts from an orange-amber to somewhat dark reddish-brown depending on the lighting. Nice initial head that diminishes to a thin line with some lacing. Smells of fruit, caramel, metallic hops. Very malty upfront, with a strong fruitiness, as well as caramel and biscuit. Nice bitter kick at the end. Moderate carbonation, medium body, somewhat spritzy feeling, finishes fairly dry. Great American version of an ESB. I really feel that this would be a better flagship beer for Summit than the Extra Pale Ale, but that beer has been ridiculously entrenched here in the Twin Cities.

Pours a clear deep reddish copper with about half an inch of light tan foam. Minimal head retention, but a foam ring provides decent enough webby lacing. Very slight aroma of sweet malt, you really have to look for it to find it. I like the pronounced toasted malt flavor of this beer, both sweet and dry. Floral, slightly peppery hops for balance, flavor, and character. Medium body, mild carbonation. Very drinkable.