Tonight's beer: Heavy Seas Winter Storm
Earthy-grassy bitterness, threaded with toffee and nuts, balanced by dark bread, toast, flickers of ash and smoke and possibly peat. Dark dried/candied fruits lurking around the fringes. Evenly bittersweet throughout, dries out gradually by the aftertaste.
A little on the bready-thick side of medium-bodied, adequately carbonated. A little sticky, tending toward filling and satisfying. A bit drying, but while it's kinda cleansing, there's too much there, there, for the beer to really be refreshing.
A very American—read: big—take on a very English style. While Heavy Seas uses the right ingredients (mostly in the way of malt and hops varieties) I'm pretty sure no English brewer would brew an ESB this big: The balance is about right, but the intensity is way out there for the style, in my experience; there's plenty of complexity here, all very well integrated. A delicious beer, graceful and supple and subtle. An unusual style for a winter seasonal, but it works: this is a beer I look forward to, every winter.
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| Heavy Seas Winter Storm |
Earthy-grassy bitterness, threaded with toffee and nuts, balanced by dark bread, toast, flickers of ash and smoke and possibly peat. Dark dried/candied fruits lurking around the fringes. Evenly bittersweet throughout, dries out gradually by the aftertaste.
A little on the bready-thick side of medium-bodied, adequately carbonated. A little sticky, tending toward filling and satisfying. A bit drying, but while it's kinda cleansing, there's too much there, there, for the beer to really be refreshing.
A very American—read: big—take on a very English style. While Heavy Seas uses the right ingredients (mostly in the way of malt and hops varieties) I'm pretty sure no English brewer would brew an ESB this big: The balance is about right, but the intensity is way out there for the style, in my experience; there's plenty of complexity here, all very well integrated. A delicious beer, graceful and supple and subtle. An unusual style for a winter seasonal, but it works: this is a beer I look forward to, every winter.
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