Dam Buster
Silversmith Brewing Co.

This beer may have a bit of a branding issue, see my final thoughts.

Appearance: Poured with a thumb's worth of head that did not lace or stick around very well. The body is a deep copper that shows low carbonation.

Smell: Caramel malt behind an earl grey tea note as orange zest and black tea is in the forefront. I think I'm catching the barest note of wood in the background, but that's pretty deep into the beer. Solid potency and did not need warming up to come out.

Taste: Caramel malt to start that's maybe slightly leaning into richer toffee with a slight orange note that gives way to tea and a slight apple touch before rounding out with a mild earthy hop note.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation seems to help out the middle and end of the beer a bit more than the start, but it works here as the sweet malt can stand alone well, the transitioning is well done as the orange takes of a slight pithy quality as it hands over to the tea notes. Aftertaste is that of earl grey tea with maybe a bit more orange focus.

Drinkability: On the lighter side of medium body that goes down incredibly easy. The carbonation behaves well focusing solely in the mouth. Part of me would love to see a lighter, plain English Bitter version of this.

Final Thoughts: I think there is a bit of branding and confusion about this beer. The picture shows this is a pale ale, but some reviews here seem to indicate this is formerly "Bang on Bitter" and ESB. To further add to confusion, Silversmith's site seems to indicate exact same orange cans with the exact same notes branded as "Extra Special Bitter" but their picture of cases seem to indicate Dam Buster as the name. In my opinion, what I had was an ESB to a tee and this is not nearly hoppy enough to be a pale ale. I suspect this was a Pale Ale that got rebranded, and they moved the Dam Buster branding to their ESB, which then they probably had to stop due to trademark if I had to guess. I reviewed this as an ESB, and it's a damn fine one at that.

 

 

Pours a deep copper with a 1cm creamy headand good lacing. Aromas: caramel / toast - these carry into the flavour where they are balanced by an earthy hop bitterness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a mug glass.

A: The beer is a deep amber color with a large off-white head that fades slowly and leaves a thick but spotty lace on the glass.

S: The aroma contains honey, caramelized malts, some fruit and some hops.

T: The taste starts out sweet with flavors of caramel, honey and some fruit. Then some breadiness quickly follows from a hearty malt character. The hops presence is mild but complementary and on-target for the style, creating a good balance. The after-taste is slightly sweet and slightly bready.

M: Crisp and smooth, medium body, medium carbonation, finish is slightly sticky.

O: Tasty, goes down easily, not too filling, mild kick, very good representation of style, this is a solid beer to pound down for a long time.

This was an excellent beer. Beautiful copper color with perfect carbonation. It's taste is a flavorful and delicious meld of caramel and butterscotch malts, a mild nuttiness, and an absolutely perfect amount of hops.

For it's style, this is one of the best I have tried in a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well balanced hops and sweet caramel malt