Thames Welsh ESB

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

Serve in English pint

Bottle from Peace St. Market, Raleigh, NC. Pours turbid pumpkin pie colored with little head. I’m not sure how this one got into NC if it truly has a 6.5% ABV. Aroma is wonderful sweet caramel, some cotton candy, dark fruit, some cherries, almonds, and blackberries. Fabulous aroma! Tastes caramel malty, with tons of fruitiness including the aforementioned cherries and blackberries, plus some slight molasses. The palate is medium, worthy of only a 3. The finish is very smooth but lacking in complexity a bit. The front end was a bit better than the back end here, but this one is very good at either end.

Bottled. Malty, sweet aroma, some brown sugar, toasted nut, dried cherry, bitter orange peel and raisin along with traces of spicy, leafy British noble hops, faint chocolatey maltiness and butterscotch. Medium-dark amber-brown color, clear and filtered with a lasting, foamy, light tan head and very good lacing. Flavor profile is full and balanced, even some moderate complexity here, with aspects of toasty, buttery, sweet malts, earthy, leafy, spicy and herbal hops and a variety of dark, dried, berryish and citric fruits interspersed from start to finish. Some gently prickly alcohol heat on the palate along with the abundant carbonation, body is medium-full. I remember this being pretty good from my pre-RateBeer days, so it is to its credit that it remains enjoyable even after a rather serious palate upgrade and general beer paradigm shift on the part of this rater.

Pour is a deep red with a small white head. Aroma is a nice hop and malt combo. Flavor is the same a nice malt and hop combo. Nothing special here but it it quite tasty.

Good, smooth drinking beer. Not all that full flavored, but what was there was nicely done. Slightly sweet and malty with a hint of fruit. Pretty good.

bottle. pours a dark amberish brown, nice aroma of fruit. Malty candy like taste..round, full, toffee or orangish, spice, really nice. Alcohol was quite detectible for 6.5% good beer, enjoyed it.

Reddish brown, with a generous tan head. Aroma is somewhat breadlike. Definate caramel taste, with the alcohol a bit more noticable then I’d expected. Goes down surprisingly easily. I’ll drink it again.

Bottled. The aroma was malty but very weak, hard to discern. Appearance appropriate, medium red-brown. Flavor was like the aroma, weak. Some malty sweetness, not much else. It couldn’t stand up to my only medium-seasoned dinner. Perhaps more flavors would come out if the beer was drunk alone. The palate was smooth, but thin. I’ll have to try this again on its own, but with a meal it just wasn’t cutting it.

Garnet colored with fruity malt aromas. Sweet, smooth mouthfeel with toffee, caramel and apple flavors. Good bittersweet character nuanced with bold flavors. Slightly tart malty finish. Pretty good.