7 day beer challenge day #5
Previous posts in the series:
- Day 4 - Full-Tang (Monday)
- Day 3 - Sucaba (Sunday)
- Day 2 - All of the beers (Saturday)
- Day 1 - Grand Beiere de Texas (Friday)
After a long day at work, I had some time to kill before going to my local PHP Meetup. Why not kill some time, brain cells, and this challenge all at the same time? Strangely enough between my office and where the Meetup is held there's a growler bar called Guitars and Growlers. It's an interesting concept of a place. They've got a pretty decent bottle selection, a wall of taps, and wine by the glass. They also sell handmade guitars.
I bought four. Beers that is, not guitars.
From left to right, though I didn't drink them in that order:
- Dutchover from Pegasus City Brewery
- Black IPA from (512) Brewing Company
- Big Slick ESB from Four Bullets
- Buzzer Beater from Stone Brewing
Dutchover was a fairly typical Belgian-style Dubbel, light and sweet, a little stone fruit on the nose. I've never heard of Pegasus City Brewery (or Pegasus City for that matter). Turns out yet another brewery opened in my fair burg without me knowing about it. Clearly, I need to get out and drink more.
Next up was Big Slick ESB from Four Bullets Brewery in Richardson, TX. For those unfamiliar with an ESB, it's a British style and is an acronym for Extra Special Bitter. I imagine many Americans avoid these because they see the word bitter and assume it will be like an American IPA, but that's totally not how the style is supposed to taste. It's hoppier than an English mild, but doesn't come close to an IPA as far as bitterness from hops. That being said, this one was a touch bitter for a bitter. I guess I'd say it's an American-style ESB.
Third was the Black IPA from (512) Brewing Company in Austin, TX. I don't normally like black IPAs but wanted to try this one because of how much I love 512's Pecan Porter. It was a good IPA if you just want to drink an IPA, but I couldn't pick out any distinct flavors. That either means that they blended it perfectly or they muddied their individual flavors.
Finally, Buzzer Beater from Stone Brewing. Though it was good, I think I prefer their normal Stone IPA more. I did enjoy it more than 512's though.
As an addendum, I made my way to the Dallas PHP meetup. They had one of my favorite styles of beer... FREE!
I wonder if @lukestokes wants to drink some beer?
Since this is a contest, there must be rules.
- You have to try a new beer every day, for 7 days.
- The beer must be something you have never tasted before.
- You must put a photo of the beer and write a few words about it.
- Nominate someone every day.
- If you are a social outcast with no friends to invite you just join the fun. You have every excuse to drink!
- Use the tag "#sevendaybeerchallenge" as one of your five tags.
I have never heard of an "ESB" but it sounds tasty! Are there any beers like that, that are more readily available?
Redhook ESB was the first that I remember having, and it's much more in line with how the style is supposed to taste than Big Slick was. I think they have pretty wide distribution, so assuming you live where your username sounds like you live, I imagine you can find it there.
Strangely enough, it was one of the first "craft" beers that I had way back in college. To some degree I credit Redhook ESB as my gateway beer.
ESB, or Extra Special Bitter is a classic English style. It is bitter, hence the name, but not that bitter by today's standards. Usually between 30-40 IBU, it is actually quite balanced with malt flavor, and makes for a nice well-rounded ale, no fancy bells and whistles but just a straight up hoppy ale. They are actually pretty refreshing once in awhile when taking a break to the super high IBU (70-100 IBU) beers and highly dry-hopped pale ales.
Just googled "Redhook ESB" and I have totally seen this around. Will have to stop at Binny's (large liquor store) and see if they have it.
I've been to Binny's! I was in Chicago for the php[tek] conference and had to sneak away to fill up my suitcase with beer that's not available in Texas for me to bring back. Brought back a load of 3 Floyds and Goose Island special releases. I found their staff pretty helpful.
Love me some 3 Floyds.
They don't distribute to Texas, so I have to get beer nerds to bring it to me or travel in order to try it.
Nah, but I’ll give you an upvote. :)
Hello! Quite the nice lineup for the challenge. Trying lots of different styles. Sen your Sucaba post and am looking forward to try that one as well as all these. You're in TX I gather?
Northern suburbs of Dallas.
hell yeah. if you are going to do it do it right.