Down Is the New Up
Imprint Beer Company

Canned on 10/22/20; consumed on 11/24/20

Pours a foggy, brownish copper body topped with a requisite towering, fluffy, nitrogenated off-white foam, so thick it takes the shape of the glass even as it rises above the rim; expected lasting head retention is unrelenting, yielding a creamy layer of cap and collar along with a steadily retreating lacing down the walls of the glass.

Aroma first features heavily toasted bread in tandem with dried caramel malts against tones of grassy hops; a floral undertone develops over time, with distant suggestions of potpourri, wood chips, and dehydrated apricot slices accenting the bouquet; buttered toast (minor, fleeting diacetyl) serves as an additional layer as the beer warms.

Taste opens with crackery malts sporting touches of caramel upfront, soon evolving over the mid-palate with freshly baked brown bread and a steady, beautifully attenuated, almost ashy char into toffee, dry grass and distant suggestions of apricot oils on the finish.

Mouthfeel is light-bodied with a perfectly fluffy, creamy, high carbonation, settling on cue with a refined crispness over the mid-palate into a velvety texture on the back end as a peaking harmony of malty grit and delicate hop bitterness leaves this one finishing light and quenching.

Synchronized, precise, and with a fluidity in design leaving it perfectly sessionable, this ESB highlights a spectacular use of the nitro treatment to elevate the beer to a more refined, comprehensively enjoyable level; approachably expressive malt atop a plush, effortless foundation.