Iron Hill ESB

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

On draft at IH Wilmington. Pour was a full murky copper to almost orange-brown color, dark for the style and seemingly with a nitrogen delivery of cascading fall out. The aroma, though, was nice, full spicey, woodsy hops, some caramel and toffee. The flavor was big malts, caramel at the fore, balanced out nicely by spicey, woodsy and floral bittering hops. Mouthfeel was quite full but refreshingly light on the tongue with a significant level of carbonation. Nice stuff, gotta love it when a brewer hits ya hard with a nice take on a normally blah style (for me). Two thumbs up for an ESB.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

On tap at Wilmington location: Orange copper pour with one finger white head. Nitro pour...which again robs this beer of all bold flavor. Sillky smooth, but not much underneath it, as I mention. As it warmed, notes of cardboard came out. Pretty high level of bitterness that was listed as floral, but didn’t honestly have much flavor. In all honesty, I didn’t care for this much.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Poured a copper color with a small, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of caramel, toffee, nuts and light citrus hops. Chewy sweet, toffee and caramel malts, pronounced citrus, bitter hoppiness. Really nice ESB, I bet this is incredible on cask.