Crooked River Settler’s Ale ESB

Crooked River Brewery (Snyder Intl)
Brewed at Black Box Brewing Co
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Frederick, Maryland USA

Serve in English pint

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Draft sample. Poured clear copper brown color with an average frothy off-white head that lasted with good lacing. Moderate floral hop and sweet malt aroma. Medium body with a slick texture and soft carbonation. Medium bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. Solid drinkable beer.

medium red with large white head. nose of crystal malt wiht touches of floral hops. some bitterness before a ton of medium/high crystal malt. some floral halts interacting with this, but a high residual sweetness leaves the beer with little drinkabilitiy

Aroma: Lots of floral and spruce hops. Appearance: Cloudy dark orange with a thin, white head. Taste: Slight bitterness upfront fading to a light sweetness balanced by a bitter/sour finish. Really well put together. Palate: Medium body, slick texture, soft carbonation, long finish. Overall: I’m impressed at the way this beer builds in the mouth. It’s mild enough to be a session beer, though some might argue the 5.8% ABV puts it out of the running, but with enough hop depth to keep the drinker interested. A really well developed beer.

Had an overwhelming aroma of dead yeast and bacteria spoilage. The sourness made it unpalatable.

Pours a light amber color, with a white head that leaves fairly quickly. Sweet, nutty aroma. also some small hints of hops and caramel. Mild bitterness in taste. caramel notes are not very present. Very clean finish. All flavors work very well, with just the right amount of bitterness. A great light beer. The guys at black box/ jw dover did a great job on this one!

You guys like this but I don’t. I guess I just don’t like this style of beer which seems to taste like a rusty nail. I thought my first one might have been bad or my previous meal conflicted with it, but the second one was no different.

Poured a clear amber color with a medium-sized off-white head. Aroma has hops with caramel and some soapy notes. Also a slightly sweet cotton candy hint. Taste is very smooth and well balanced with caramel and hops. Very earthy, it has a lot of interesting flavors. Finish has a slightly doughy and cheesy quality with herbal notes. Overall quite flavorful and interesting.

UPDATED: AUG 13, 2010 12oz bottle, bought, if I recall correctly, at Rozi’s in Lakewood. I think this may have been the top rated ESB since I joined RB, so I’ve wanted to try it for a long while. With its new contract brewing status, I expected a slight let down, but this was not the case. Not at all. Its darkish amber pour already hinted at a darker spectrum of malt flavours than the norm and this brought us a gloriously nutty, toasty malt profile that culminated in a perfect, round yet dryish palate with soft bubbles helping with drinkability. The minerality is absolutely perfect and surely contributes to the mouthfeel’s impressive quality. Some sips almost hint at chocolate, there may be a touch of roast in there. The golding hops feel pretty orangey and more woodsy/spicey than brightly floral. And they are part of the action both in aroma and in mouth, though never stealing the show from the structured, layered cereals. Remarkably clean also, without the slightest hint at butter, not that it’s a character I dislike in English styles. Wow, I should have bought a six-pack and certainly hope to encounter it again.

My Bottom Line:
Freshly toasted cereals permeate this ESB’s judicious caramel sweetness before seguing into a perfectly levelled leafy and nearly resinous hop bitterness.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam covers the hazy amber.
-The body is cushy and nourishing while remaining very drinkable.
-The toasted malt character is absolutely gorgeous, from aroma to aftertaste.
-The hop bitterness is of medium intensity. Not too weak, not too strong.

Bottle.

Now going by Settlers Ale ESB, this beer starts with an aroma of biscuit and caramel malts, and pours a clear reddish amber, with a dusting of white head. Nice full taste, more on the malt side then the hop side, but there’s a lot of nostalgia in this beer. Worth picking up especially if you remember it from the old days.