Old BullDog ESB
Aviator Brewing Company

 

 

Deep amber pour with faint head and no retention nor lacing.

Nose is uninspiring. Weak malt and that's it. Just nothing here.

Despite the weak aroma, the beer actually tasted pretty good. Nice ice tea flavor that I like in an esb. Slightly peaty. Also slightly sour in be finish.

Slightly thick for be style. Matches the flavors well.

OK session beer.

On tap in a pint glass at the taphouse.

Appearance is interesting. Darker red than most ESBs. Not nitro here. Nice small white head, clear reddish brown/yellow maybe. Not bad but not quite what I expected.

Good solid smell. Plenty of malt and earthy hops. Smell is pretty well-balanced between the two. Not a ton of complexity, but the big notes there are definitely solid.

Again the word here is solid. Not terribly complex but tasty malts well-blended with earthy hops. A tiny bit hoppier than most ESBs but nothing like a pale ale. The blend of flavors is actually closer to a hoppier, bitter red. I'm not a huge red fan, so take with a grain of salt.

Well-balanced mouthfeel, as you might expect at the taphouse. Good amount of carbonation and, since not on nitro, pretty good overall.

Pretty drinkable. Alcohol doesn't show up at all. The marks off are because I don't like red ales, which this is very reminiscent of. If you do, add a point to the drinkability.

Solid overall. Not a bad ESB or a stellar one. The particular malt/hop blend to me is more red than ESB but if you like both/either, this is a pretty decent session beer.

Served in a pint glass at the brewery.

Pours a clear reddish orange with that creamy dense white nitro head. Head stuck around for quite awhile and left some moderate lacing.

The first thing that hits the nose is the earthy hops, but not in an overwhelming way as you can definitely find the sweet caramel maltiness in there as well.

Flavors were rather well balanced, allowing the malts to take center stage first and then sort of fade to those earthy herbal hops. After the initial aromas, I really expected more malt, but this was rather nice. The finish was clean, crisp, with some light hops in the linger.

I love the texture of nitro beers and this one didn't disappoint, however, I think it would probably be quite good with just straight (natural) carbonation. In fact, it might match the style and flavors a little better. None the less, this was very good and easy to drink.

This just seems like a nice English pint. Very good.

10oz serving at The Pit, served a crisp orange with a thin diminishing head. Aroma is some caramel malt and a touch of hops. The taste is a subtle balance of sweet caramel malts and bitter Earthy hops that linger in the finish. The beer is light and crisp with decent carbonation. This is a good interpretation of the style, just not as good as their other beers.