Creature
Tired Hands Brewing Company

 

draft at the brewpub

Served in an 8 oz glass, lightly hazed copper in color with a full topping of white carbonation and heavy lace. Absolutely nothing like the typical ESB. Loaded with grainy bread - very earthy with scents of aged, fallen wood, pumpkin seed, and earthy hops. Cleansing mid-range bitterness and earthy flavors lingering. Grainy bread and caramel. Quite nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beer poured out as a really nice looking amber color with a fluffy white head on top. The lacing and retention were minimal on this beer. The smell of the beer was really earthy, kinda sweet smelling and had an interesting herbal note in there too. The taste of the beer is balanced between caramel and some light acidic bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel of the beer was light bodied and drinkable. Overall I thought this was a pretty interesting brew.

 

On tap at Tired Hands.

Pours a lightly hazed amber with a small, quickly settling head. Despite this there is exceptional lacing clinging in sheets to the sides of the glass, really nice looking beer.

Mild nose; faintly floral hoppy bitterness; hint of vegetal squash aroma, brown sugar and toasted bread. Flavor follows the nose pretty closely; more squash notes detected here than in the aroma; bitter floral hops mostly noticed in the finish and are not strong. Very mild caramel and toffee sweetness finishes mostly dry. Lightly spicy from the yeast. Again some toasted bread character. Has a bit of a sweet potato/thanksgiving vibe going on.

Medium bodied, moderately carbonated, extremely smooth and creamy mouthfeel. Ultimately a bit blander than anticipated; went down smooth and easy but felt somewhat dialed back in terms of overall flavors.

on tap at the brewery

Pours a hazed copper caramel color with a thick froth of white head. Nice layer of retention with patchy rings of lacing left on the glass.

Toasted malts and bread crust in the nose, light spice and cinnamon with caramel sweetness and touches of squash.

Starts off with spicy cinnamon and a hint of clove. Nice leafy hops and earthy malts, bread crust and caramel. Lightly sweet, slightly vegetal from the squash. Very appropriate for the season. Finishes a little juicy and sweet with lingering earthy spices.

Fuller medium body, decent carbonation, drinks real easy with a well balanced flavor. It's really fascinating that there wasn't any spice added, but there's still all these spicy, fall flavors. Thank you Tired Hands for doing something OTHER than a pumpkin beer for the season.

 

On Tap at The Brew Cafe in Ardmore.

Creature sports a darker shade of bronze with some deep orange seeping through the glass. A nice amount of white stuff on top, excellent lacing going down, a nice clinger. Great activity and retention while the smell was a mix of caramel malt and some fruity tones from the berry squash used, A bold scent and something different than most (All) ESB's. Creature has some nice things going for it. A deeper ESB base with some unique ingredients. The squash brings some fruit and earth, the small batch ESB, a nice bready, caramel base that does not remind me of a normal ESB, things are stepped up a notch here, which made the drink better IMO. Feel was at about medium, a bolder body than the style Im used to, a bolder taste, more bubbles from the tap, rather than the standard hand pull. At about 5% this is easy drinking with a twist.

 

 

First had: on tap at their brewpub

CREATURE was part of TH's fall/Halloween line-up in 2012 (and hopefully years to come), along with others such as VAMPIRE, GHOST, GOBLIN, ZOMBIE, WEREWOLF, and Black Lagoon. This particular brew was listed as an ESB brewed with 70lbs Sucrine du Berry squash, and promised a spicy taste despite no actual spices being used in the batch.

Half-pour into a stem glass, a soft mahogany color, slightly hazy, with a medium-sized white head that receded to a wispy layer, leaving a bit of lacing behind. Sweet malts in the nose, vegetal notes imparted by the squash, some herbal qualities as well. Taste was pretty sweet and smooth like your typical ESB, mid-palate bringing in some not-so-typical flavors of candy corn, honey, yams, finishing off almost cinnamony with a bit of herbal essence (not the shampoo). Light-medium body, tasty, quite drinkable overall.