Ravenmaster
Bardic Brewing

new brewery in the valley making english and belgian styles primarily, this was the better of the two i had while i was in last week. this is stronger for the style, but the beer isnt heavy at all, still is quite light in color and body for what it is, and hides its alcohol relatively well in my opinion. decent clarity and a nice fizzy head from the tap, but it settles back to nothing pretty quick. the aroma is the bready english yeast and a bit of honey sweetness from the grain, but not much else. it definitely tastes american to me, not because its hoppy, but because its kind of thin and lacking nuanced and conviction, its like a dipping of the toe rather than a cannonball into the style, even though its as strong as it is. it needs some body and some more grain depth of flavor, i dont get the maris otter earthiness i like in the style, and i the yeast seems too mild, not really there anymore at the end. its fresh but also kind of faded or muted at the same time, and has a light soda element to it. i think its close to being exciting, but needs a little more of everything, maybe more grain or a longer boil up front, maybe a warmer ferment or longer conditioning on the back end, its just not as exciting as an esb pushing 9% abv should be. still, its cool what they are doing in here and im sure the beers will get better pretty quickly, its always a sharp curve up from the home brew setup!