Thames Welsh ESB

Brewed by Felinfoel
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Llanelli, Dyfed, Wales

Serve in English pint

Pours a dark, murkey reddish-tan. Dark for tan I mean. Smells exactly like apple cider. Maybe some toffee, caramel...no just cider. Its a pleasant smell but has me worried. Tastes a bit cidery, but this time there is toffee, caramel, fruity esters, etc. Brown sugar, cinnamon, apple pie spices. A sharp, acidic bite. A little yeasty/bready. Its actually an interested beverage, lots of flavors mixing. I probably won’t get another, but a its worth a try...

Medium to deep amber, creamy slight head, rather attractive. Aroma softly of caramel with a bit of dried apricot. Flavors matched. A bit of alcohol surprisingly shows up, a touch fusel. Not often I detect something I would consider a true flaw, but this, albeit slight, was clearly not supposed to be there. A touch thinner on the finish than I would like, I wanted more caramel. Not awful, but I wasn’t pleased with the execution here. You can’t have flaws in a beer with this kind of subtletly.

I’m not sure if my sample was too old, but I found this ber to be far too sweet. Caramel and sugar taste overwhelmed the rest of the beer. Nice color and limited head. I’ll have to try it again sometime.

Not a bad beer. This was most notably toffee and caramel like in the base flavor with a definite hoppy bitterness that finished. I cought some licorice in the aftertaste and was content but not overly impressed with this one.

(500 ml bottle: $3.39 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) I was not expecting such a full-flavored ESB, but this is quite tasty. Mildly sweet, fairly fruity and nutty, with mild hops bitterness for balance. The fruitiness reminds me of raisins and there is the classic buttery flavor and texture to this beer. As the beer warms up, a modest sourness toward the finish dampens the sweet fruits, and I guess in this situation, I wish the sourness weren’t there -- I liked the beer better out of the fridge. Sweet, fruity and caramely aromas are appealing. Full bodied and velvety on the palate with gentle carbonation. Cloudy, muddy, red-brown in color, topped by half an inch of light-tan head that fades to a thin ring and leaves only spotty lacing. A really pleasant, balanced and interesting ESB.

Beautiful ruddy brown color with small head. Caramel, burnt toast aroma. Distinct metallic aftertastes. Decent beer.

Nice brown body with a medium volume tan head. Toffee and caramel dominate the aroma, almost a tea-like quality. Mead taste, very light and some bittterness. Clean hoppy ending.

Hazy dark brown color with a thin fully diminishing off-white head. Sweet fruity aroma, almost like apples. Sweet flavor with noticable fruits and some light bitterness.