ESB
Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant - Eleventh Avenue

20oz pint at the Century Park location. There have been a couple of attempts at an ESB by Brewsters over the years (most memorable being their release that mocked the last NHL strike/lockout/whatever the fuck), so here they are at it again, with one of their current seasonals.

This beer appears a clear, bright medium bronzed amber colour, with one rather skinny finger of wispy and weakly bubbly off-white head, which leaves very little in the way of lace anywhere near the glass as things slowly recede.

It smells of robust dark fruit (bruised apples and pears, cherries, and plums), crackery and grainy caramel malt, a hard water flintiness, and some edgy leafy, weedy, and gently perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, bready and doughy caramel malt, further sugary nougat notes, some muddled black tropical and domestic citrus fruitiness, mild wet stone, and more moderately testy leafy, earthy, and musty floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite peppy in its palate-tingling frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and more or less smooth, nothing really interfering here. It finishes well off-dry, the big fruitiness lingering like the boss it wants to be.

Overall, this iteration certainly falls on the sweeter side of the spectrum, as the typical biscuity malt essences fail to materialize, and the bittering hops are timid, at best. Not bad, but not able to run with the best of class, either.