Elysian The Wise ESB

A place I frequent most. Really maly rich and red, if red was aflavor this would be it. Very silky sexy red with a sweet hoppy fashionable balance. One of my fav due to the mouth coating silky texture

Draught No head left; amber-foxy beer. Hoppy, discreet USA hops and some cookie malt, even caramel. Nutty, grapey, hoppy flavours. Bitterness makes up the finish. Slick, slightly oily, smooth. Sweet aftertaste, strangely enough. Very good ESB, no diacetyl, bravo!

22oz. bottle. Deep amber hue with a medium sized offwhite head. Some citric metallic hops in the aroma, but buried beneath a huge buttery diacetyl component. Mild caramel maltiness and a slightly chalky resinous hop flavor. Though again marred by a butter pantina that mutes the other flavors. Residual dark caramel flavors in the finish, with a slight astringency. Buttered popcorn lingers on the tongue. Mouthfeel is medium, rather smooth.

Draught at the brewpub. Clear amber. Laid back grapefruity ho aroma. Sweet with clean mouthfeel, some syrupy notes. Meduim bodied with plenty of hops. The finish holds licorice and grapefruit.

clear gold body, no head, slight hop nose, pale flavor thats a little grassy with mild hops, no real bitter domination taking place, finish is on the watery side of acceptable, good but no stand out 2-5-08 re-rate... Fogged amber with no head, sweet rich nutty hop nose, delicious beer, rich toffee and elaborate malt complexity, dull hop bitters in the finish, but electricly devine. best esb i think i’ve ever had

On Tap: Grey Lodge Pub: Very nice combination of bittering and malt flavors. Very smooth drinking and highly enjoyable. Late hop kick in the finish that I found rather pleasant.

Deeply broad and beautiful orangey color with a medium/full stack of egg shell hued soft, creamy foam. Keeps a great cap of about a 1/4 inch for the entire duration of the session. Patchy and broken sheets of lacing coat the glass well. An excellent looking glass to drool over. Wiff time...Aroma is quite grassy and feathered in herbalness with a slight toasted malt wiggle underneath. Perhaps a little light at first but somehow gains more waft as it sits. Taste is pretty solid here for an ESB. Subtle layers of toasted malts and grains & grassy, herbal, leafy, hops, create a nice balance and texture for a delicate ride of ESB styled fun. Starts fine and smoothly textured with a bit of sweet bready grainyness mixing quite well with a broad grassy hop tone. Toastyness ensues towards the midranges as a woody hop adds some cardboard pulp and leafyness. It rounds off with a floating finish of frothy textured toasted grainy, grassy bitterness and wood pine. Kinda ends a bit too soon, but fits the style. It does however have a very light kickback of flavors very late after it grows on ya. Feel is quite nice with a standard medium, smooth body; no real rough areas other than a tad of scarring on the palate from its toasted grainyness and fluffyish texture of hoppy leafyness. After determining most of its character from sip after sip, there seems to be just a bit more subtlety adding to it. A very light citric lemon/orange peel spritz does sqeeze into some of the hoppy return late into its kickbacked finish. For an ESB this was one hell of a very well crafted beer in my book. The subltety took its toll on me along with its very nice body and drinkability. Overall, a strikingly fine beer.

Draft @ the Grey Lodge Pub, somehow there was a name change from Portland to Philadelphia. The G-Lodge is calling it "Elysian the Wise EBA". No big deal only one letter off. This could easily pass as a IPA with all the C-hops used in the brew. Some spice in the flavor but an overall the brewer blended the sweet caramel malt of an ESB with the bitterness the West Coast hop heads long for in a beer. I’m just surprised this can be classified as an ESB and not an IPA or APA.