Naughty Hildegard ESB
Driftwood Brewery

Naughty Hildegard ESBNaughty Hildegard ESB
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From:
Driftwood Brewery
 
British Columbia, Canada
Style:
Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)
Ranked #1
ABV:
6.5%
Score:
94
Ranked #2,689
Avg:
4.23 | pDev: 7.33%
Reviews:
50
Ratings:
147
Status:
Active
Rated:
Dec 03, 2023
Added:
Feb 16, 2010
Wants:
  46
Gots:
  21
Brewed to honor Hildegard Von Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine nun who allegedly was the first to record the use of hops as an ingredient in beer. While this is open to debate, we like Hildegard's style and we can't imagine a beer without hops. This extra special bitter has lots of hops- Hildegard would be proud. We are! Cheers Hildy!
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 4.04 by KeithGreatNorth from Canada (BC)

Dec 03, 2023
Photo of wildvanisle
Rated by wildvanisle from Canada (BC)

4.04/5  rDev -4.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Dark red-ish amber, very mild but pleasant smell, tastes of hops pine with a mild pleasant mouthfeel. It's quite good.
Jan 27, 2023
Photo of charleskimmle
Reviewed by charleskimmle from Canada (BC)

3.75/5  rDev -11.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Good but not what i was expecting. I was expecting a completely different experience from their flagship Fat Tug. This is seems kind of like a modified Fat Tug. However in this way it delivers on what it promises, because the description does place emphasis on the hops and west coast style. This basically tastes like a Fat Tug with a darker malt to me. The malt isn't even more prominent in this than the Fat Tug, because that has a very healthy malt presence, but it is darker. I don't have any prior experience with ESBs, and honestly I still don't feel that I do know what an ESB tastes like, because this mainly tastes like an IPA to me. I guess I was expecting something a bit more blunted, and mellow, easy drinking with a dry bitter finish and interesting malt. This has a lot of citrus and tropical going on which I was not expecting. This seems like a very lively IPA with a slightly darker malt backbone to me.
Jan 15, 2023
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Reviewed by WunderLlama from Massachusetts

4.27/5  rDev +0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Can states best before 8/8/22 - received in bif15 from @snaotheus whose kindness and thoughtfulness has brought me too the #1 rated ESB on Beer Advocate. I equate ESB’s with London and I really haven’t had many in recent years. it is a style that I like .

Brewers Notes: Brewed to honor Hildegard Von Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine nun who allegedly was the first to record the use of hops as an ingredient in beer. While this is open to debate, we like Hildegard's style and we can't imagine a beer without hops. This extra special bitter has lots of hops- Hildegard would be proud. We are! Cheers Hildy

Poured into a will becher glass, clear copper liquid with numerous active carbonation streams capped by a light taupe frothy two finger foam cap, good retention , sticky lacings , settles to a frothy ring and islands

I get a piney and then an orange citrus hop aroma. A whiff of malt aroma

taste is piney hops, orange citrus , this beer should be consumed at or near room temperature

Creamy sudsy mouthfeel, Has a tangy hop bite that lingers on the tongue

Good beer …i wish I could drink it bellied up in a London pub, elbows on the bar ..or maybe in a Vancouver version..
Apr 28, 2022
 
Rated: 3.93 by Roejogan from Canada (BC)

Dec 31, 2021
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Reviewed by LeBron_James from Canada (ON)

4.29/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
From Driftwood's Swashbox 8 pack thing.
Pours dark amber with an amazing full head. Leaves tons of lacing.
Smells a LOT like Fresh Squeeze by Deschutes. It smells like an IPA for sure. Lots of hops, tons of fruity and floral notes, some nice malt here too.
The taste definitely follows the nose. Super hopped up and pretty great. Tastes a LOT like an IPA and actually super similar to Fresh Squeeze. Tons of citrus fruit from the hops and some earthyness too. I really like this beer a lot but I can see why people are saying it's more like an IPA than an ESB.
The mouthfeel is very nice, carbonation is perfect. It's a little on the higher side but works great for this beer.

Overall this is a great beer. I like it a lot and would like to see Driftwood come up with another ESB (maybe more traditional).
Mar 14, 2021
 
Rated: 4.25 by shigg85 from Japan

Nov 20, 2020
 
Rated: 4.24 by Teion from Canada (AB)

Jun 16, 2020
 
Rated: 4.51 by jmdr from Canada (AB)

Mar 31, 2020
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Reviewed by altstadt from Canada (BC)

3.16/5  rDev -25.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
Clear dark amber color. The head was a light tan and made of larger sized bubbles. It left a lot of sparse lacing on the glass as the head quickly dropped down. There are very few bubbles rising in the glass, mostly larger bubbles.

Mostly a vegetable hop scent with a tiny bit of barnyard that quickly faded away. Swirling the glass kicked up a stronger barnyard.

Mostly vegetable hop flavor with a medium bitter level. It is actually quite bitter for an ESB. Half way through, a floral hop flavor pops up. Some malt underpinnings get stronger as it warms. There is a light barnyard throughout. The aftertaste is mostly the hops and bitter.

Some light tongue tingling; more than would be expected from the visual carbonation level. Doesn't foam up much.

This is much more like an IPA than an ESB, so not very true to style. My notes from a couple of years ago describe a floral hop scent and make no mention of the barnyard. The aggregate rating now is more than a point lower than what I recorded a couple of years ago.
Mar 11, 2020
Photo of TooManyGlasses
Reviewed by TooManyGlasses from Canada (AB)

4.21/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
An absolute surprise of a beer - ESB - a rarity in itself.
This pours a mildly hazy/chill hazed caramel orange-amber with creamy pale tan head.
Aroma jumps out with a floral piney hop on caramel malt backbone and some citrus - orange, tangerine.
Taste starts with a malty caramel sweetness that transitions into notes of orange, floral hops, and piney bitterness (actually made me think of Troeg’s Nugget Nectar).
Medium mouthfeel with active carbonation leaving with a deliciously refreshing piney bittersweetness - IPAish ESB.
Dec 16, 2019
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Reviewed by patre_tim from Thailand

4/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Copper orange with light haze and carbonation. Topped with 4 fingers of light beige head.

Smells of orange, toffee and a hint of evergreen.

The taste follows the nose.

Medium body with little carbonation.

I got this near Windermere, BC, and am drinking it in Radium Hot Springs, Aug 21st, 2019.
Aug 21, 2019
Photo of kemoarps
Reviewed by kemoarps from New York

4.29/5  rDev +1.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
Rich amber body with a light chill haze. Maaaaassive soft pillowing head. As it languidly works back towards the liquid it concentrates into a powdery soft appearance and clings to the walls like spray in insulation.

Nose is a nice balance of malts and hops... lightly bready and sweet caramel with maybe some spice and a bridge between all that and some earthy and lightly nectar-floral hops.

Similar impression on the tongue. Toast and almost rye-like spice with toffee in a rich vein meet with a surprising amount of bitter earthy/grassy/floral hops. Big pine bitter finish.
This is heavily hopped for the style, but that's warned on the label. You could make the argument that this could easily be a big midwest or west coast style basic IPA and I wouldn't argue, but it's labeled an ESB and it's damn delicious.
Smoothe with appropriate carbonation and very easy to drink despite the big pine bitter ending.
Irregardless of style guidelines, this is a fantastic beer and I'm really glad I picked it up when I was in Vancouver. I will gladly snag another any time I'm up there.
Apr 15, 2019
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Reviewed by Beersnake from California

4.1/5  rDev -3.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured from can at fridge temp. Pours golden yellow with little tan head. Nose is resin, wheat, spice, coriander, and citrus peel. Taste is awesome. Super piny - lots of aromatic pine, tree sap, citrus peel, and a bit of vanilla. Really nice. Mouthfeel is light and dry. Overall, a really nice IPA.
Mar 24, 2019
 
Rated: 4.54 by IPAnicked from Canada (BC)

Feb 16, 2019
 
Rated: 4.42 by KevinHildahl from Canada (BC)

Sep 17, 2018
 
Rated: 4.22 by NickNVBC from Canada (BC)

Sep 04, 2018
 
Rated: 4.02 by Nunya from Ohio

Jul 07, 2018
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Reviewed by grover37 from District of Columbia

3.61/5  rDev -14.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Pint at Beer Bistro in Toronto. This is not a good beer, not sure why it rates so highly. Very confused between ESB and PacNW IPA. Way out of style (way too hoppy) and not a very good IPA either (way too sweet and caramelly). I don't appreciate it for what it is, though I could see people liking it.
Jun 06, 2018
 
Rated: 4.13 by booby_hill from Canada (AB)

Apr 28, 2018
Naughty Hildegard ESB from Driftwood Brewery
Beer rating: 94 out of 100 with 147 ratings