Thunder Canyon ESB

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

Pours from the growler with a fat, initially two-finger thick, light tan colored head that leaves some lacing on the sides of my glass as it recedes. The beer is a dark red tinged, concentrated amber color, but shows a brilliantly clear, deeply red stained, copper color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite hop focused and a mix of herbal and citrus hop notes are noticeable as I pour this beer. A deeper inspection of the aroma yields a caramelized malt character, some raisin notes, aromas of browned bread, bright berry notes, a touch of pine and perhaps a touch of menthol. As the beer warms up a bit a touch of warming alcohol is also noticed.

Lightly carbonated, more than from a hand pump, but not overly so; just enough to cause a prickle on the tongue and a touch of a peppery carbonic bite. The beer has a creamy feeling to it and is fairly light, but with enough heft to it to be somewhat chewy. Sweet malt flavors are well balanced by bitter hop notes as well as hop derived herbal notes and some sharp pine-like flavors that intermingles with the hop bitterness in a lingering finish. Caramelized malt flavors mix with the fruitier hop notes to produce notes of berries and some sweet bergamot notes. A touch of toasty, bread-crust-like malt character and some dusty grain notes (especially as the beer warms) are just barely perceptible towards the finish as the hop character just about washes out its contribution.

This is quite hop dominated, yes there is a nice malt character here, but this is clearly a hoppy brew. This is especially true with the pine / herbal, slightly astringent long bitter finish. A tasty brew, that has a bit more hop character than I was expecting (based solely on the description, as this is perfectly within bounds of the "style"). This is quite the beer to be quaffed; a couple pints of this is a perfect little session.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Dark medium gold color. Malty and slightly hoppy. Full bodied, with full flavor. Good hop/malt balance. Mouthfeel is full. Smooth taste. Finish is smooth. Aftertaste is malty, some sweetness with a slight bitterness.