Silver City Big Daddys E.S.B.

On tap at the brewpub
Amber colour. Light wood & caramel aroma. Fairly restrained flavours - bits of caramel and woody, earthy hop. Really simplistic. An indistinct background fruitiness can largely be ignored.

Tap @ Brewery: Copper, light head and lacing. Nose of nice simcoe and amarillo, pine and grapefruit. Subtle bittering, dry hopped ESB? Delicious blasphemy, sweet body, chewy, quaff-and-drinkable.

This ESB pours a medium brown amber color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is caramel, fruity with a touch of piney hops. A medium bodied ESB/Bitter. The malts are fruity and caramel. The hops are piney and earthy. Decent balance. Nice carbonation. This beer has the caramel and malts of an ESB and the hops of a PNW Pale Ale. Kind of a strange combination, but it seems to work. Its light enough to be a session ale, but has enough of a flavor profile to keep it interesting. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

(22 oz bottle: $3.79 at Bottleworks in Seattle, WA) The sweet, very richly fruity, and fairly caramely nose is totally drawing me in and reminds me a little of a Scotch Ale. I can’t wait to taste what seems like might be an awesome brew. Unfortunately, the beer pours a tall, inch "plus" head that is off-white in color and very slow to recede, so I can’t get to the beer when I tip the glass. I like a heady beer, but when I’m dying to taste it, a head like this can have some drawbacks. The color of the beverage is a deep ruddy-amber, and is fairly hazy in appearance. Okay, finally, the head has died down to only half an inch, so I can take my first sip. Well, this is a very tasty beer, but I’m having a hard time imagining how the brewer thinks this is supposed to be an ESB. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the flavor, but it’s not to style at all, at least not compared to the imported ESB’s I’ve tasted. Sweet, malty, very caramely, and very fruity early on, with a solid, moderately bitter hoppiness for excellent balance in the finish. Damn this is good. And for a beer this flavorful, I would normally expect a thicker, heavier body, but check it out, all this flavor for a beer that is "only" medium-full. Carbonation is solid, and the aftertaste just goes on and on. Big Daddy’s ESB is right. Oh Daddy, is this a big ESB! And delicious too.

Draft at the brewpub. Crystal clear light golden brown; thin gray rim. Big butter and caramel nose. Medium body, slightly fizzy. Butter, cream, caramel mid-palate. Herbal hop to balance. Cleanish biscuity finish. Kinda surprised to find such a butter bomb at SC, but they do seem to have high local demand for their beers, and maybe they’re rushing things through.