Mega Hertz Belgian ESB
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.

650ml bottle - an ESB, brewed with a 'distinctive Belgian yeast strain'. I incorrectly remembered the German metal band Megaherz a while back, but not this time! Gott sein!

This beer pours a clear, dark-ish copper amber colour, with four fingers of puffy, rather finely foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some decent defrosting back windshield lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.

It smells of edgy Low Countries yeast, gritty and grainy cereal malt, some mixed earthy spices, muddled black stone fruit, and some plain leafy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a lesser biscuity toffee sweetness, bruised apples and pears, some slightly phenolic Belgian yeastiness, a hint of clove/black peppercorn spice, and more understated earthy, herbal, and floral noble hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-caressing frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and sort of smooth, as that yeasty essence doesn't exactly cede much quarter here. It finishes off-dry, but still a mess of yeast, malt, and spice .

Overall - yeah, this was one of those brazen ideas that should have been stillborn, like barrel-aging IPAs. The exotic yeast does nothing for the base brew, essentially masking the subtleties of a biscuity, malty, and lightly-hopped beer. Mein Gott!