ESB
Pug Ryan's Brewery

a lot of times these beers, the english classics, get overlooked by modern american palates as being too malt driven, and just not complex enough, dated or whatever. i would make a strong case against that, and when one of those is made as robust as this one, the case is that much stronger. this is radiantly clear, copper to amber in color, darker than other takes on the style, nice this time of year, under a full inch or more of thick white head. it smells like fresh english malts, crystal and maris otter i might guess, among others. upbeat yeast profile for an english style, lots of flavor, but lots of life too. this is really clean and well carbonated, makes the richer grain base of the style drink just a little lighter. this is ideal food beer too, after mountain beer, and sessioning in winter beer. not the worlds best esb, but it does a lot of things right, pays an honest homage to the tradition, and marks a step forward for this cool little brewery in my mind. they have a good thing going here.

On tap at the brewery in Dillon. I heard the brewer describe this as a fresh hopped SSB that used Colorado hops from Paonia. Color was amber, good head. Aroma was subtle malts, not bad but not strong enough. Flavor was mostly malts, I didn't really taste any hops, maybe the slightest bit of caramel and nuttiness. Overall this was incredibly easy to drink but the flavors just weren't robust enough for me.