1001 Beers

Beer No: 111
Page No: 63
Category: Amber

Yes...it's been a long time.  When the blog started, I was unemployed, had ample funds to support my beer buying, and more free time than I knew what to do with.  Now, I'm employed, don't have funds to spend on lots of beer (but I do anyways), and have less free time.  But...I think it's time to try and get this going again.  It's not going to be easy to get a review up every day, nor find beers that I can review each day, but I'll do my best.  I just went to the Belgian Beer Festival at Pizza Port, Carlsbad so I have a few reviews to post from there and I do have some beers from my previous review days saved up - and hopefully they'll still be good and not skunky - they've been stored properly, so I have high hopes.

So, Bitch Creek ESB...usually, in the original sense of the word, ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter - with a good amount of hops bringing the bitterness and a golden/brownish hue.  So when I opened this ESB from Grand Teton, I was quite surprised to see it so dark and have the big malty notes on the front.  Yeah, the hops are still there, but it was just darker than I expected.  Then I looked it up on Untappd.com (add me!) and they have it listed as an Extra Special Brown.  I guess it's a nice mix of the two - both bitter and brown, with a good amount of malts and a darker, amber color than I was expecting.  Either way, the malty, nutty flavors really come through but are balanced out at the end by a great hop finish.  Quite exquisite.

As for the amazing write-up in 1001 Beers, the Otto Brothers brew this beer, starting in Wyoming and then moving to Idaho.  But back in Wyoming, after getting brewpubs legalized, they were the ones that introduced the growler.  A bit of beer trivia that we all should know.

At the end of the 19th century, beer drinkers would carry beer home from the pub in a pail known as a "growler."  Lacking a bottling line and looking for a way to sell beer for his customers to cake home, Charlie Otto hit on the idea of putting a brewery label on a half-gallon glass container, calling it a "growler," and telling customer sthey coudl return empties to be refilled.  Brewpubs across the country soon copied the idea.

My review, cross posted at Ratebeer.com:

Grand Teton Bitch Creek ESB

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Had from 12 oz. bottle in pint glass. Pours dark brown/copper with large tan head that sticks around to the finish. Aroma of solid hops and bit of fruitiness that gives way to a solid nutty, malty aroma. Taste starts with the malts; toasty, nutty, toffee. Finishes with strong hop bitterness; pine, citrus. A solid ESB, bit darker than I expected, but quite tasty.