Grizzly Peak Cask ESB

Brewed by Grizzly Peak Brewing Co.
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint

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light malt aroma, ruby red with long standing frothy head, creamy with hints of wheat and a building peppery hop finish

Cask. Poured a dark brown, almost near black with a creamy tan head. Aroma had a combination of hay, bread and caramel. Flavor began a bit sweet but ended with a darker bread flavor.

Darker than expected, very inviting. Smooth caramel malts with fainter roasted notes. Some bread crust and honey, and just a hint of citrus. Low carbonation and creamy head are perfect.

Nice Head and some lacing. Stronger hops and less sourness then expected.

On tap at the brewpub. The body was dark copper with a white head. The aroma was malty bread with some caramel and oranges. The taste was burnt almonds with some black tea. A fairly bitter finish.

On cask at the brewpub. No aroma. Hard to drawn anything other than faint brown sugar. Pours a clear brown, with rocky off-white head above. Flavor is a sweet and woody. A light tooth of crispness in sugar and old hop bitterness. Short. A little light on the carbonation, even for a cask beer. Not as soft and supple as I would have expected. Meh.

Pours with a foamy ecru head over clear, deep copper. Light apple cider vinegar notes behind a base of malts in the aroma leaves me a bit disheartened, but the vinegar is only minor in the flavor which otherwise has a full malted grain sweetness followed by an elegant bitterness. Smooth and rather thick on the palate with a dry finish.

<font size=-4>Hand-pull pint off the engine at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/michigan/ann-ar Peak Brewing Co., Ann Arbor, MI 48104</font>

Cask sample at the brewpub: Clear ruddy amber color with a negligible off-white head and spotty lacing. Aroma of caramel, bready malt and fruit. Medium-bodied and kind of creamy with toasted malt and subtle peppery hops flavors. The finish is equal parts hops and malt. Decent overall.

Their standard cask. A little head on a dark reddish tinge. A hoppy fruity aroma, perhaps some wheat, and taste, but taste does not deliver on the aroma. Strange carbonation like it was infected, yeast: it was musty, fungy like.

Draught. Dark copper-brown with a soapy white head. The aroma is yeasty with faint notes of rye, grain, and bread. The flavour has a similar profile - bready caramel, toasted malt, and indistinct hop bitterness.
Tasted at the brewpub on December 27, 2006.

Cask sample at the brewpub, early August 2006. Lasting creamy near-white head tops the bubbly clear brass body, thick sheet lacing coats the glass....lots of caramel malt and dry grassy/earthy hops, clay-like qualities in the fine nose....fairly light, fluffy body, moderate hoppiness throughout (E Kent Goldings?), earthy and lightly fruity (cherry-apple)...nicely modulated sweet-dry balance, low natural carbonation.