HotShot ESB
Great Divide Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 ounce bottle into my shaker glass. The ESB appears a hazed dark golden amber color with two plus fingers of white foam. Nose and flavors are of red grapes, slightly floral, honey, a bit spicy, sweet malt, biscuits. Light bodied with decent carbonation. Seems a bit sweet for the style and that carries into the aftertaste. Glad I tried it, not sure if I'd go for it again.

I bought this the same time I picked up their Denver Pale Ale, I let them cellar for about 6 months and am just trying them now.

Just like their DPA I'm getting loads of honey in the smell.

The taste has more honey, just like the DPA, but this has a bitter aftertaste that cuts away the sweetness of the honey. Actually, I'm enjoying this more then the DPA because of that... finishing their other brand (with all that sweetness) took a bit of effort.

Would drink again

Appearance: One of the best looking beers I have ever seen. Poured with a 1 inch creamy thick off white head that dissipated to a thin layer (1/4 inch) leaving amazing lacing all down my glass. The beer is a beautiful dark gold color. The head stayed at 1/4 inch through out the whole beer.

Smell: Sweet flowery smell up front, and a nice caramel malt backbone. Small alcohol smell.

Taste: Less of a floral hoppyness than expected and more of a spicy hop. Some sweet malty notes. Leaving a crisp slightly citrus taste in the mouth. Not as much hops as I would have liked.

Mouthfeel: Very creamy! Also has a nice hop tingle on the tongue. Leaves the mouth feeling very refreshed and clean. No alcohol burn.

Drinkability: Really easy to drink. Very refreshing and delicious. Great session beer, will be one of my go-to beers!

The whole damn 6 pack I bought of this stuff ended up gushing. The head would not go away, either! Looks like it might have some slight chill haze.

Big, sweet and fruity nose. Smells like a fruit roll-up, red grapes and plums. Not much mineral scent.

A bit spicy, like a four-peppercorn blend. Fruits are there as well. More mineral taste than the smell indicated. A bit of funk is detectable in here as well. Lingering resinous aftertaste.

Nose was a bit of a turn-off. Tasted ok, but was a bit disappointed considering some of GD's other fine beers.

Since all of my bottles gushed, I can only imagine that the batch I got had some sort of bacterial contamination. Would try this again to see if that was the case.

A: Even before I begin to pour the beer out, white foam comes rushing out of the bottle. The head is so massive, that I can't really pour this beer into a glass. The color is a nice reddish/orange with gobs of chunky lace. The massive amounts of foam detracts from the appearance of this beer. Obviously a beer should have a good amount of foam and lace, but I can't even try to pour the beer correctly.
S: Very sweet and candy like. A bit of some cooked veggie aroma. Malty with a hoppy backbone.
T: Lots of caramel malt with a bit of hop spice to it. Candy flavors again though it is not to sweet. Average ESB flavor and aroma.
M/D: Smooth, creamy, and a light to medium body. Pretty easy to drink. It would not be hard for me to session a couple.

A sub-par to an average beer. The only thing that truly stands out is the massive amounts of foam from bacteria I assume, and that is not really something to write home about. I have given this a couple of trys (in two different states non the less). Every time I have had a gusher. Looking at some of the other reviews, I am not the only one. Purchase at you own risk.

This poured a hazy reddish brown with unbelievable amounts of head (even with a slow, careful pour there was twice as much head as beer). It smelled like rich and sweet caramel, cotton candy, and some floral hops. It tasted super sweet as well, with dominant caramel malt flavors, and a bit of honey and floral hops. It was fairly thick with so much carbonation that you could barely drink it, and had an aftertaste that was obscured by lingering carbonation. Overall this was a crazy beer. I feel like it would have been good if they totally removed the carbonation (which would also solve the ridiculous head problem), and added a lot more hops to give the flavor some balance. Afterall, this is supposed to be an Extra Special Bitter, not Extra Carbonated Sweet.

Light amber color with a nice fluffy head. The nost is very malty with spicy hops and rich candy. The flavor has nutty malts with some caramel or toffee and bitter hops. Good balance amd a middling body. This is somewhat mild for the style but is smooth goes down well with a meal.