With the new beers from Sierra Nevada, 2009 must be the year of the bitter beers. Good news for me.
The Sierra Nevada ESB, or Early Spring Beer, is an unfiltered ESB that combines English and West Coast styles to create a hoppy beer with a crisp, dry finish.
For an unfiltered beer, it pours surprisingly clear - orange in color with no haze. It had a foamy head with thick lacing. The aroma is spicy, a little powdery - not too strong and without the citrus, flower notes you associate with West Coast bitters.
The use of English hops is apparent - at 45 IBUs plus dry hopping, they are hard to miss - but with earthy, dry notes from the English Challenger and East Kent Golding hops. Its a nicely balanced body, with earthy Maris Otter malts accentuating the English character. The beer finishes very dry - with a long, lingering bitterness - a benefit of what seems to be aggressive dry hopping.
Its a hop-head beer for bitter beer lovers looking for something other than grapefruit and citrus in their hoppy beers.
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