Executioner ESB
Thunder Canyon Brewery

Red-amber in color, clear, with light carbonation. No head and just a modicum of lace. The aroma is of the malt with a tip of the hat to hops. There is some carbonation bite in the first taste. It's well balanced between the malt, fruity and slightly sweet, and the hops (some pine, but muted). The finish hints at caramel.

Sampled April 2009 at the Brewpub
Arrives from the tap with a one-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a red amber color that is reasonably clear and shows copper highlights around the edges when held up to the light. The aroma has a mix of berry like fruitiness and caramelized malt notes to it up front; aromas of crackers, brown biscuits and a touch of brown sugar round out the malt notes. The malt plays a more significant role in the nose than the supporting hops do. As the beer warms though more hop notes become noticeable; lemon-zest aromatics, some pine and even a touch of menthol become noticeable.

The beer has a light sweetness to it up front that gets sweeter as the beer rolls across the tongue. The flavor is redolent of crystal malt character (a touch of sweet tea, toasty malt notes, brown whole grain bread notes and a touch of cracker-like grain in the finish). The hop flavor is quite prominent. It is in fact the most prominent flavor contributor here (despite this not being the case with the nose) with notes of sharp pine needles, bittering citrus oil and herbal notes all playing an equal role. The citrus hop notes seem to become more prominent with time though; the initial citrus notes expand to flavors of orange peel, sweet grapefruit, and even some lychee. The bitterness is apparent as soon as the beer hits the tongue and it adds quite an ample bit that definitely helps to cut through the malt sweetness. The body has a medium fullness to it that sticks to the mouth and even has a viscous resistance to it as it rolls across the tongue. This manages to finish on the dry side though and is even a bit refreshing; the hops do a good job of scrubbing the malt character from the palate, though there is some crystal malt character that manages to linger on. The malt also contributes flavors of brown sugar crusted dark bread, biscuits glazed with malt, a whole grain cracker note as well as a touch of grassy grain character.

This is a very solid beer that is quite enjoyable. This is definitely not a session beer, but I enjoyed my pint of this quite a bit. The beer is actually a bit more enjoyable than its individual components might have suggested.