Wellington Arkell Best Bitter

It's been awhile...I'm back with another Canadian brew review.

Wellington Arkell Best Bitter

Wellington Brewery

Ontario, Canada

English Bitter

4.00%

Look: The beer poured A very rich, yet clear amber, brown color.  A nice off-white head stood up for A few minutes before deflating into nothingness, leaving behind A decent amount of lacing on the rim of my glass. Not much trace carbonation visible.  Not the best looking beer I should add.

Smell: Immediately I get A very roasty, nutty scent.  I could smell it as soon as I popped the can open.  Also pick up A bit of some honey biscuit and cereal grain. Perhaps A bit of some grapefruit from hops, maybe A little pine as well.  Besides the nuttiness everything else is fairly subdued.

Taste: Some light bready notes, watered down coffee, and A bit of caramel.  About half way through the taste you get A bit of bittering from the hops to balance the beer out quite well. Finishes with A brush of some roasted cereal and some piney/grapefruit hoppiness.


Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied. Perhaps A bit lighter than that.  Medium carbonation as well. Does not sting the tongue and goes down very easy.  Maybe it could be A little more full bodied but I think that the amount of flavor to mouthfeel ratio is really making this beer work.

Overall: This really isn't A great example of A bitter, yet it's also not A horrible one.  Maybe A bit higher than middle of the road when it comes to English Bitters.  I would suggest giving it A try though if you are ever in Ontario, maybe you will have A different experience than me.  

Wellington Arkell Best Bitter gets A 3.5/5 from me.

Fuller's Nitro E.S.B.

I was visiting The House of 1000 Beers yesterday evening and finally stumbled upon A wonderful gem of a beer.  Well...I guess it's not "finally."  I've stumbled on many fine brews at this establishment.  If you are in the Pittsburgh area and interested in the place, you can go HERE and visit the site. ,k

Fuller's ESB was on a nitro tap. Served in A Redhook pint glass.

Fuller's ESB is brewed by Fuller Smith & Turner PLC. In the United Kingdom (England.)
5.90% ABV
The style is Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB)

Fuller's ESB is brewed with Pale Ale and Crystal malts and from Challenger, Goldings, Northdown, and Target hops.

Look: Fuller's ESB is a very rich, deep amber color.  I love drinking beer on nitro because you actually have to wait to taste it.  It's like a challenge to see how long you can go as the beer settles into A very creamy, rich, tan-white head.   The beers leaves plenty of lacing.  It barely wants to leave the glass.

Smell: The first thing I'm picking up the some earthiness from the hops. Some weedy, grassyness as well. After that, I can really smell the sweet, toasted malt used in this brew. Very delightful and tame.

Taste: Cooked fruit. Some melon and strawberry. Starts off a bit sweet and finishes nice and semi-dry with some really nice hop bitterness thrown in. The hops provide an earthy, tea-like flavor that just floats across the tongue and tingles the back of the mouth and throat. Very well balanced and easy drinking.  I am in love with this.

Mouthfeel: Fairly chewy and smooth.  Just enough of a tingle to notice it on the tongue, and then it slides right down your throat without any fight at all.  Magnificent.

Overall: This is easily my new favorite beer. Fuller's really have this locked down.  I fell in love with it from first sight and first sip.

Fuller's ESB gets A 5/5 from me.
I can't wait to stock up on some bottles of this.  Every bar in the U.S. needs to carry this on nitro draft.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

You can check out the web page for this brew HERE.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is an American Double/Imperial IPA.  Served in a 12oz bottle into a mug.  Comes in at 9% with 90 IBU.

"90 Minute IPA was our first continually-hopped beer, which is a method of hopping that allows for a pungent, but not crushing hop flavor. Since introducing the world to the continual-hopping method with our 90 Minute IPA, we've since released a continually-hopped 60 Minute IPA, 120 Minute IPA and even a 75 Minute IPA (a cask-conditioned blend of 60 & 90 Minute IPAs).: "

As you can see from the quote from the website...This brew is all about the hops. I guess there other 2 are as well but this is the one I picked up.  So how does it fare for this guy?  Time to find out.

Look: The beer poured a very dark, hazy, golden, amber color.  Very beautiful glow radiating through out the glass. For some reason I was only able to get about a half an inch of a fluffy, off white head.  Subtle carbonation bubbles up from the bottom of the glass.  Not as sprity as some other "IPA's" i've had in the past, but truthfully...I prefer it this way.   90 Minute IPA left some pretty decent lacing in my glass as I quenched my thirst.  

Smell: Some toasted malts right up front, in your nose.  A little bit of light caramel and a heaping load of toffee. I'm also picking up something a bit sweeter...perhaps some donuts? Yeah, donuts. Also wafting from the glass is a blast of some fresh, sliced grapefruit and some dry orange peel. No doubt from the hops.  The smell isn't as strong as I would expect from all the hop bragging, but we'll see when it comes to taste.

Taste/Feel: Very moderate body.  A little more watery than I had expected but it actually fits with the taste quite well.  It actually is a little sticky in the mouth.  It just doesn't slide down, it is sort of like you are drinking some goo that nickelodeon use to dump on people. What was that stuff called? Ahhh...I can't remember now for the life of me. Anyways. I picked up some hints of toasted malt that came across as some light caramel and toffee. Just as I picked up in the nose when testing the smell. Vanilla.  Yes, I am picking up some vanilla...not cheap, fake vanilla but real vanilla bean. 

Now on to the bitterness, which this beer, surprisingly doesn't overwhelm you with. I was really hoping for a more bitter beer but this one did not deliver as bitter of a bite as I could have hoped.  It seems like these IIPA beers are always letting me down when it comes to bitterness. Oh well...maybe it's just me? Perhaps I set my BU hopes to high? I dont know. The hop flavors I picked up were reminiscent of grapefruit, that is the prime flavor that sticks around for most of the end of the beer. A little bit of lemon rind sneaks in just to splash your tongue with a bit of lemony bitterness that drops off into a semi dry finish with almost no sign of alcohol to be found anywhere in this 9% beer.

Overall it's a pretty good showing for an IIPA.  After finishing this beer quite quickly I did end up with a bit of a buzz from the 9%.  Maybe it was because I hadn't eaten anything all day too. 

This is a pretty good beer and I would recommend it to anyone who is into IPA's and stronger beers. However it does come at a bit of a price.

I give Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA 3.8/5.  I just couldn't give it a 4 because the lack of bitterness let me down a bit.

Your Magesty, Coco

Took this picture of my darling Coco at about 2AM this morning. She's a beaut is she not?

Redhook ESB

Redhook

Tonight's brew is an ESB from Redhook.

"Brewed in the style of a traditional British ESB (Extra Special Bitter), we’ve been making ESB continuously since 1987, and it’s now the benchmark for the Amber beer category. Despite having “bitter” in its name, Redhook ESB is really not that bitter at all. This brew is all about the balance of caramel malt sweetness completed by spicy, citrusy hops."

I picked this brew up from Franklin Village Distributor in Kittanning, PA. I paid about $27 for a 24 pack of bottles. Not too bad. Especially for the quality of the nectar contained within the bottles.

The logo that Redhook uses is really quite amazing, I think. The mountain stretching up to the sky with the words; "Redhook" in between. Really something I can get behind, you know? Anyways, let's discuss the brew a bit.

Redhook Extra Special Bitter

Redhook ESB is 5.8% ABV

Coming in at 28 IBUS

13.75 degrees plato for an original gravity

Brewed since 1987

Has won Gold awards at the 2008 & 2009 at the ABA and ABF

The bottle that Redhook ESB comes in is

actually quite intriguing. As you can see, they

are not the normal bottles that most people will be accustomed too. They are a tad short and stubby with a very short neck. The cap is

not a twist off so you will need something to

open it with other than your hands...unless you're some sort of tough guy or something.

Since this was my first try of anything from Redhook, I had to completely clear my mind so that I could make an honest, wholesome review and also clear my palate so that I had no odd, off, or misplaced flavors floating around in there.

Upon popping the cap off I noticed a bit of

smoke billow out from the bottle. It was not

too much, definitely have seen far more. However, it's not about the smoke, it's about the beer. I poured the contents of these stubby bottles into my 16 oz English pint glass. The

beautiful golden, amber body quickly filled my glass leading to about a half an inch worth of head that did not stick around for all that long. A bit disappointing on the head section. I let the beer sit for a few seconds to watch the

medium sized bubbles quickly make a dash for the top of the glass. Plenty of stragglers where left clinging to the side of my glass throughout my consumption of this beer.

At first smell I didn't really get too much of anything. A lot of people may be expecting this

to be a super hopped up brew, but it really isn't. Being called an ESB or Extra Special Bitter does not actually mean this beer is that bitter. My fiance does think it's bitter, but she is not a hop head in the least bit. An almost sweet, honey like smell made itself present. It seems that was the strongest scent I get from the beer. Some toasty malts and a bit of grassy hops try to sneak in, but they are easily powerbombed to the mat by the honey scent.

The beer actually starts off quite malty in taste. The honey-ness of the bees is back for a second round as well. I'm not sure why but I just can't shake the honey sweet taste that this beer has. It reminds of honey grahams, the cereal (at least I think that's what it's called.)

Anyways, the honey like malts are very present but they lead into a very nice, and smooth lemon rind hop bite. Not too bitter. If you are a huge hop head and expecting something extreme, this is not the beer for you. Everything in this beer works together perfectly and is balanced just right. No one aspect overpowers the other. The carbonation is very tight and even tingles the tongue a bit. The beer is very smooth, the only downfall is that it really is just a bit watery. I wish the mouth feel could have worked out just a little better (or should I say bitter) but I guess it fits the style well.

Over all this is definitely not a beer I would turn down and I can truthfully say that it is now one of my favorites. As for being a good or great representation of the ESB style...I can't really say for sure. The only other English bitters I have had are Boddington's and Tetley's Ale. I found those both to be pretty enjoyable as do I with Redhook ESB.

I give Redhook ESB a resounding 4/5 . OBTAIN RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT