Elysian The Wise ESB

Brewed by Elysian Brewing Co.
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Seattle, Washington USA

Enjoyed this one on draught at the brewery in Seattle, WA. This beer pours to a beautiful, bright, deep copper color, with a thick, creamy, white head, and a good bit of carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic with very fragrant aromas of piney/grassy/citrus hop aroma, paired with estery aroma of fruit, and nutty/toffee aroma. The palate is firm, with excellent pale, and sweet toffee malt flavor, with good fruity estery flavors of plum and apple. This beer finishes with more excellent malty and fruity flavors, then ends with a big smack of piney hop bitterness that lingers. I was really impressed with the tremendous character of this beer. It is just bursting with big aromas, flavors, and bitterness. Really a great beer to sip and savor at the bar, or to match with a number of dishes on Elysian’s menu. Great beer, from a great Seattle brewery.

Lightly hazy amber pour with light creamy orange hues. Good retention of a copper tinged off-white head, delicate fully-covering lacing. Notes of pine needles and grapefruit lead in the aroma. Following are scents of caramel, treacle, toffee and dried flowers. The flavor is a pleasant meld of mild sweetness, caramel and florals and a mild to moderate bitterness comprised of resins, grapefruit, pine and acidic flourishes. Very tasty. Chinook hops work marvelously in this setup. Finishes light, crisp and fairly clean, with good length. Medium bodied, nicely carbonated, sticky palate.

tap @ elysian fields - dark amber with white head and lots of lacing; mild hop aromas; not very bitter at all and an easy drinking brew

Shared this one with ross. Pour is a dark amber and cloudy. Smell is more sweet than expected but still light and faint, both ross and I agreed that the aroma was somewhat dissapointing. Man does this thing come back strong though with the first taste. Very nice crisp in your face bitterness but balanced at the same time. ESB is a style I don’t have too much experience with and I can say I think I have enjoyed this one the best so far. Good stuff, starting to like this brewrey.

Bottle: Pours a copper color with an off white head. Aroma, pale malts, some earthy hops. Flavor, caramel, bready notes, pale malts, earthy, with a light bitterness on the finish.

Bottle that Garrett shared with me a week ago. Thanks man. Pours out a dark brownish red color with a thick white head on it. Smell is some what hoppy, pretty sweet smelling too. Not really a whole lot of aroma going on in this one. The taste makes up for the smell though. Very smooth and refreshing, with a nice bitterness that only a PNW brew could bring. Good stuff, much better than their IPA.

Draft at the Elysian Fields. Pours crystal clear rubied amber with thin white moussy head and plenty of lace. Here we go again with the no-nose-at-all on an Elysian. Moderate attack--nothing’s pushing too hard for attention, nor slinking away out of sight, either. Dry, clingy, resiny hop messing around on the mid-palate and especially in the finish. A little caramel and biscuit hanging out to keep it company. Good stuff. I could drink the shit out of this beer one day and then the next day pretty much forget it exists--but it’s good while it’s in front of you, without a doubt.

An average ESB, nothing spectacular. Poured from a 22 oz bottle the color was a coppery brown with a decent but quickly dissipating head. OK aroma and thin pallette compared to other ESBs