ESB
Cloud 9 Brewery

Draft at Cloud 9. Dark, slightly cloudy amber, wispy tan head. Malty, nutty aroma. Taste adds some leathery, tobacco notes to the nutty malt backbone. Clean and simple.

a sturdy and tasty esb here, a style i have grown to love over the years and would love to see more of locally. this is malty and english, simple but well made, and with all of the elements contributing essentially equally in the flavor. the yeast is familiar from their other brews and maybe not quintessentially english, but it has flavor thats bready and light and its efficient in its work here, so it does the trick. the malt is nutty and toasted without being sweet at any point, perhaps a touch of caramelized character to it, but just a flash, and its fermented pretty dry. the hops are more than just late bittering, slightly herbal too, and fresher to me here than they ever seem to be in the imports. there is thus great balance here, and with balance, drinkability. this hits on a lot of the style points i desire in one of these, and its an easy pint, even without a food context. every time i go to cloud 9 they have something new and delicious on tap, it blows my mind that they get no local hype for their beers, i would rank them among the top handful here, but you never hear anyone talking about them. a shame...