Thames Welsh ESB

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

Serve in English pint

Ga’ i beint cwrw, os gwelwch yn dda! (A pint of ale, please!) Excellent in all respects. Good body, nice bitterness lurking behind the malt. What my ancestors in that neck of the woods would call cwrw da, good ale. Of course, I may be swayed somewhat by Welsh nationalism... I’ll forgive the description as ’English bitter,’ since unfortunately there aren’t a lot of small independent breweries in Wales.

large malt profile, from toasted nut to toffee/caramel through plum/currant

Hell yes, brother. This is a damn fine beer. Pours very dark, almost a brown ale, with a light misting of head. Aroma is very estery and malty, with a mild english hops background. Flavor is huge and explosive, very malty and fruity with a great hops backbone. I think a lot of people forget that this style is all about balance. Lots of subtlely, medium to full body, light carboantion. The only thing that would improve this beer is perhaps a hand pulled cask of it.

UPDATED: NOV 12, 2003 Succulent aroma: yeast, pale malt, peat, a little vinegar, sloe and raisin. Tannic but incredibly balanced -- absolutely stellar. No unnecessary tartness, bittering, sweetness, broth, wood or fruit -- yet it has all those things. Raisiny, roast grain, molasses, Fuggles/Kent hops, complex taste. Finish is peaty and woody with baked raisin qualities. Only Fullers 1845 approaches this level of refinement in a common bitter. Perhaps Strong Suffolk, distantly. Dark, dark redbrown, with a fine head that lasts, good bottle, great label. Gimme a deck chair, lads, this is about as good as it gets.

(br-btl wh/gr/rd-lbl, 500ml, 6%, $5)

lct-br, thin-wh-head, ^co2, med-body.

aroma: nutty, fruity, alchl, (gets even more fruity and complex while sipping).

flavor: great sweet-nutty-malt ^fruity-alchl T1, ^crml ^leafy-hop-bitterness §mnrl T2, §sea-salt, roasty T3.

hop-bitterness does stand out just slightly, but the malts are always right there in the background from start to finish.
co2 and minerality overpower some of the wonderful and complex but subtle flavors.
when in the right glassware, i could just smell this beer all day.
i would love to try a cask-conditioned batch of this stuff.

UPDATED: OCT 7, 2009 I don’t know what you people are thinking. Probably one of the best beers out there. Nutty and full on the nose. The color is a deep amber and the flavors are bold and suprisingly sweet. You can taste the caramel and toffee. Wonderful beer.

I really like this beer. It is NOT an ESB. Malty with notes of scotch and alcohol. Good beer. Brown colored.

Dark, dark red color; Head was tan, dense and long lasting; SCOTCH in the nose- wonderful. Like a scotch/whiskey cooler. Very peaty and earthy. A winner in my book and an all time favorite.