Summit Extra Special Bitter

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

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.

Bottle from thirdeye11/mar. Pours with a white head and a hazy amber body. Aroma of grainy, huskyness and caramel. Taste is dry with grain and cardboard. Medium fizzy and dryness.

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 reddish brown with a medium fizzy offwhite head. Nose is malt and bread. Taste is sweetish, with notes of malt, bread and caramel. A very nice ESB.

Pours a clear, dark amber with a thin, creamy, off-white head. Aroma of caramel malts, yeast, and light hops. Tastes of malts with some hints of biscuits, nuts, light fruits, strawberries, and light, earthy hops. Medium bodied with some carbonation. Very impressive; one of Summit’s better brews.

Pours a clear amber color with medium lived beige head. Smell is slightly nutty, with a touch of yeast. Taste is slightly metallic up front with crisp bready malt and a hint of fruity tartness and a light balancing bitterness. Comes off a bit dry. Decent overall. Medium body and crisp carbonation.

Her clear, burnt garnet body shines softly while gentle orange and amber hues soften her dark colors. A faint orange-cream head settles gently into a thin layer, thicker where she meets the side of her glassy home. Before I even have a chance to get intimate with her nose, fresh prunes, caramel, molasses and maple reaches up to me in a malty embrace. Fresh baked breads of dark and whole-grains envision a street-corner English bakery while brown sugars and cinnamon perfume the air. Basking in her generous bouquet, I raise my glass for our first of many quaffs. Delicately sweet with dry spices, nutmeg and cinnamon, she is balanced with an undercurrent of honey, caramel, and molasses. Her body is clean with just the right amount of chewy breads; rye, pumpernickel, and wheat. Instead of drying my palate, she slowly leaves a thin layer of caramelized sugars with a breath of spice. Is that a refreshing burst of lemon I detect nipping at her heels with each savory quaff? I think so. Far too quickly I find myself having to say goodbye. Our final moments together are a blissful menagerie of warm breads, toasted crust, caramelized sugars, spice, and vibrant lemon nips.

An ESB to make the English proud, Summit Brewing has a gem of a beer here. She was spot-on in all categories and the perfect session beer in every good way possible. I am crushed only by the grim reality that she was the only bottle I had and, for now, I am unable to buy more.