Element Extra Special Oak (ESO)

Brewed by Element Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Millers Falls, Massachusetts USA

Serve in English pint

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750 c&c from cakanator. The guy who covers Element. Pours dark copper with a foamy 3 finger off-white head. Slightly musty floral aroma. Medium plus body with frothy carbonation. Flavor is oaked. Fresh floral hop over light toasted malt. The spiceyness of oak permeates. Not getting bourbon or scotch or that sort of thing. ESB heading for English Olde Ale. Or Strong ale. It is exceedingly tasty. Mellow.

750mL Bottle. Big soft caramel, light butterscotch, and settled oak and booze aroma. Married and warm. Pours a hazy brownish-gold, with a quickly fading off-white head. Flavors combine a washed out snappiness of an ESB with some boozy barrel-aged characters. Interesting flavors, but I’m not sure the textures hold together. The warmth and booziness is out of balance for the style, but the malt and hop nuances can’t quite keep up. The barrel flavor is good and not overbearing, but I’m just not sure that a ramped up version of an ESB put in a barrel is all that successful. This could use a little tightening.

750 ml corked and caged bottle shared by John. Pour is a slight haze orange gold, with a somewhat loose head that falls with pretty lacing. The aroma is fresh oak, caramel mild roasty malt and a touch of some vegetal / plastic. Taste is toasty vanilla oak, sweet caramel malt and a faint hint of the plastic / vegetal nature from the nose - which does nto detract too much. Overall, nice integration of wood. Palate is a spritzy fine carbonation, medium to light bodied, lingering sweetness and a touch of warming in the finish. Thanks John.

From Skjold Burne, Aarhus, DK. Bottled, 161111. Brown with beige head. Aroma of malt and oak. Flavor with hint of sweet vanilla. Oak well balanced.

Rerate: some bubblegum and very light papery finish, this on draft fr brewer at table and vine tasting. Some flavors of sherry in there. Flavors of a 10 year old scotch more than a beer.

Bottle. Unclear golden with a white head. The vanilla oak flavour dominates. There’s lots of malt going on and a typical bitter finish. An interesting ESB.

Pours deep amber into an English pint. Off-white conglomerate head recedes to foam surface leaving no lacing. Toasted nut and oak aromas. Sweet caramel, bread and toast upfront turning to slightly sour oak and resin in the lasting hot finish.

Bottle at DSG 2011. Golden colour with an off-white head. Aroma is oak, vanilla, alcohol, malt, hop. Flavour is oak, vanilla, alcohol, malt, hop. Nice beer.

Bottle at Ølbutikken. Clear orange coloured with a medium sized white head. Fruity aroma of caramel, oak and vanilla with notes of hops. Fruity flavour of grass and hops with notes of oak and vanilla. Hoppy finish.

Bottled. An amber beer with an orangey head. The aroma has notes of malt, alcohol, and fruit. The flavor is sweet with notes of malt, fruit, spices, caramel, and wood, leading to a smooth lightly bretty finish.