Spinnakers Mitchells ESB

Brewed by Spinnakers Brewpub
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Victoria, Canada

Pours a dark amber with little or no head. Fruity aroma with mild hops. Mild bitterness some fruitiness in the palate but otherwise unremarkable.

Deep amber in color with a nice hoppy aroma. Light bitterness. I remember it being more full bodied, maybe a weak batch, I’ll have to rerate it sometime.

Pleasant hoppy citrus aroma. Pours a lovely copper brown, thick dense head with excellent lacing. Hop presence is more up front than at the end. Fruity notes. Body is slightly creamy. Not a bad beer but could have used more hops for a more aggresive finish.

This did not live up to its hype. The dirt brown brew had no head, but gave off strong cascade notes. The body was slightly sour, but hops presence is definitely felt. The finish is mildly bitter, but the beer lack depth to become great in my opinion.

Dark amber-brown colour with thin off-white lace. Some yeast clumps are present. Smell is muted, slightly sweet with some toffee and fruity notes. Quite yeasty/bready aromas present as well. Light nutty flavour with a good crisp finish and a slight hint of bitterness. Could have been hopped a bit more aggressively. Fairly uncomplicated, but good.

From hand-pump on location. Red-brown, creamy head with lace. Slight fruit (strawberries) and nut taste. Creamy mothfeel. Earthy aftertaste.

Nice creamy foam head. Body is copper-coulored with a nice malty/flowery aroma. Quite a nice bitter flavour but could have used a bit more hops. I did enjoy the fruity hints to the flavour. Finish is quite nice as the beer further warms. A good beer that I'm glad I can access quite easily.

An excellent English style bitter. Routinely served at the brewery on tap, but outside of immediate surroundings, this one is most often found in standard 650ml bottles. In recent years I’ve started tackling more and more bitter styled ales and this one sits up amongst the highest tier ales from around the globe. Sadly, it doesn’t receive much recogniition, but that’s undoubtedly a result of the difficulty one can have in tracking this one down. Features an exceptional aroma and flavor that relies heavily on the Cascade, Kent Golding, and North Brewer pitch. These three key components are skillfully blended with English Pale and Crystal Malts that provide a very complex result which provides an intriguing amount of malt flavor yet provide ample room for the flower bouquet to shine through. Pours very clean with a moderate sized head, which disapates slowly leaving a layer of calm foam with periodic large surface bubbling with a tight collar. Lacing is consistent around the glass. Of particular interest was the last 1/6th of the bottle which dispensed a suprising amount of sediment on the last pour. Sediment was very dark and consisted a small dark brown particulate that was suspend for 3-5 minutes before settling at the bottom of the glass. Despite the last pour, the rest of this one was a keeper in every way, shape, and form.