Peak Brewery Great End ESB

Brewed by Peak Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Masterton, Wairarapa, New Zealand

Serve in English pint

This beer was a bit to fizzy for an ESB but it had all of the other elements of an easy drinking ESB hop flavours and aroma contrasted with malt flavours and aroma. Ticks the boxes but isn’t outstanding.

Hazy orange colour with huge creamy white head. Malt bomb, earthy flavours.Small hop bite.

500 ml bottle Aroma: mild caramel malt with spicy hints (cinnamon and nutmeg?), coffee and chocolate, and a little fungal, organic; Appearance: translucent brown and hazy, big head dissipating to a thick ice cream float with convoluted shar pei wrinkles and really thick lacing - sort of exotic actually: Taste: robust and bitter; Palate: medium to full bodied, thick texture and a little sticky with slightly astringent finish; Overall: dramatic start and finish.

Bottle. Not a great start - a real gusher. But ends up a pouring a health light brown with a think pillowy head. The beers from Peak don’t have the best reputation - too often there are faults. However, I seem to do better than most when it comes to drinking them. Unfortunately, this time I am picking up some acetaldehyde - there is apple on the nose and plenty more in the flavour. Which is a shame, as behind that there appears to be a tasty and robust malt palate. The report card would say "could do better".

Bottle, purchased at Regional Wine & Spirits in Wellington. Hazy amber brown, bubbly off-white head with decent retention. Aroma is mostly fruity yeast, apples and pears, with an underlying toffee sweetness. Toffee malt flavour with a lot of apple fruit and yeast flavours. Low bitterness.