Dry-Hopped ESB
Steel & Oak Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

Lovely orangey pale colour. Herbal hoppy notes on the nose with bread and caramel following in behind. Taste is toffee, bread, biscuit with a hind of orange zest. Herbal hops meld well with the malts. Lingering bitterness

 

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle - 'Citrus, Toffee, Balanced' - now, that doesn't sound very much like these guys, does it?

This beer pours a mostly clear, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, broadly foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some patchy island group lace around the glass as it gently subsides.

It smells of toasted grainy caramel malt, biscuity toffee, musty pine needles, some equally wan orange, lemon, and red grapefruit pith, a hint of wayward yeast, and more understated leafy and weedy hoppiness. The taste is gritty, slightly roasted caramel malt, a steadfast toffee sweetness, cooked orange and lemon citrus flesh, slightly dusty yeast, and more underwhelming leafy, weedy, and floral noble hop bitters.

The bubbles are adequate in their supportive and otherwise playful frothiness, the body a simple quotidian middleweight, and generally smooth, nothing else really pushing its clumsy agenda here. It finishes trending dry, that expected biscuity character really starting to show some chutzpah; grow some beer-balls, as it were.

Overall, not a bad attempt at an ESB, though the results hide a few minor issues - first, what's with the session-worthy ABV for a typically higher octane style? Maybe they were going for the 'Extra Special', rather than the 'Extra Strong' denomination? Whatever. Oh, and this brewery's predilection for infusing smoke into everything they touch is not lost on me here - that toastiness suffices, and melds well enough into the whole.

 

Served On-Tap

A — Pours a rather hazy light amber color into the glass. Nearly white head sits on top and leaves behind some thin spotty lacing.

S — Smell is muted initially, with large malt notes of caramel and toasted bread, no real hop presence on the nose, perhaps just a hint of citrus.

T — Taste is very much an ESB initially, large caramel and sweet malt notes, a little buttery even, finish on it is quite bitter and overly hopped, quite a mix of styles.

M — Medium bodied, quick finishing though, somewhat thin.

O — Alright overall, certainly over-hopped for the style and exceptionally bitter.

Steel & Oak Brewing 'Dry Hopped ESB' @4.6% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $5.75
A-pour is gold from the bottle to clear dark gold in the glass with a medium size off-white head leaving a fine spotty lace along the pint
S-hops
T-crisp & clean start , not uber bitter butt a definate dryness on the swallow
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-just an ok beer
prost LampertLand