Moondog ESB
Outer Banks Brewing Station

pour is hazy dark copper with a fairly tight tan head and a few larger bubbles. Nose has a rye bread note, peppery, faint dough. Moderate hop presence, fair amount of citrus and slightly herbal. Taste is not as spicy, fresh bread, light dough, fairly hoppy with citrus and herbal grass notes. It has a medium body, fairly strong carbonation, a bit syrupy and a dry finish.

 

 

Poured a hazy honey red into a tulip with a two finger foamy head that dissipated quickly leaving a thin layer of lace on the surface. Mild floral scent with a hint of hops. Refreshingly bitter at the start, mellows nicely...with plenty of carbonation it feels full but not heavy. A very solidly satisfying beer.

 

 

 

Served on-tap at Outer Banks Brewing Station in Kill Devil Hills, NC

A: Pours a clear medium brownish ruby red in color with light amounts of visible carbonation and some garnet red highlights. The beer has a finger and a half tall soapy white head that slowly reduces to a large patch of very thin film covering the majority of the surface of the beer and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of caramel malts and some caramel sweetness along with moderate floral and grassy hop smells.

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of caramel malts with a light to moderate amount of caramel sweetness. That is followed by slightly more than moderate flavors of floral and grassy hops. Light to moderate amounts of bitterness which fade pretty quickly.

M: Medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Smooth.

O: I really enjoyed the slight amount of hoppiness that came through in this ESB - it was definitely an interesting take on the style and I think I would give that a thumb's up. This beer was very easy to drink and one I would gladly order again.

 

 

 

 

had this on tap as well, but I wasn't taking notes that night... so here is the review of the bottle I lugged back to joizee....

eyes...
big soapy off white head rising up 2 fingers, gets all james olmos edwards face and settles down in a timely manner leaving behind lots of hop web lacing, slightly cloudy ruby hue with some bubbles making their way through the great beer highway, retention is pretty damn good, this looks way better than I remember on tap.

nose...
loads of fluggel type hops, like fullers on crack, big caramel wave behind it, no over the top american hops (which I think personally kill this style), bone dry and bready, a very strong smelling ESB but definitely in the right family.

taste etc...
here's where american brewers so often go wrong imo, so let's see here...
the body is spot on, smooth as silk but yet has weight, light enough to sip away but heavy enough to not be poundable, at first the bitterness almost seems too much but the malt does a good job of holding it back most of the times, the hops have that herbal bitterness to them, not the high alpha burn, still this may be a bit too bitter for purists.

verdict?
I think sitting this down for 2 months in my cellar has mellowed it out, I remember having a visceral reaction to this one at the pub, now I wish I bought more. worth checking out.

quaffing this with some frentel emmental and carr's