Anderson Valley Brewing Company Belk's ESB

Belk's ESB

 

Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville, California, United States 🇺🇸

  Bitter - ESB / Strong Bitter Rotating Out of Production
Score
6.60
ABV: 6.8% IBU: 60 Ticks: 73
Burnished gold hue with a persistent, rocky white head. Floral, spicy aroma redolent of lilacs, white pepper, and Barlett pears with undertones of blueberry honey and roses. A pleasant balance of crisp hop bitterness and clean malts adorn the spicy, herbal hop flavors lasting into a dry, refreshing finish.
 

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6.5
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Poured palish, hoppy notes. Not a whole lot of toffee or anything else and overhopped. More like an american IPA than an ESB to me.

Tried from Can on 20 May 2025 at 00:49


6.5
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

From Jan 2007

Poured from 12oz bottle a cloudy orange with a large head of foam that shrank quickly leaving very little by the time I got half way through and..there's just a tad of lacing.

The smell is of caramel malt with a bit of citrus.

The taste is very malty...lots of nice caramel malt flavour up front. There's just a hint of hop bitterness in the background, mainly lemon, that offsets the malt sweetness just a tad but this is all about the malt and a fine example of an ESB. Yummy. Even the finish is sweet though it does fall off right at the end and concludes on the dry side. I wish I had another as I really appreciate ESBs that are true to form.

Bottom line: A very good ESB that I can easily recommend!

Another brew obtained via Wasatch; thanks bud!

Tried from Bottle on 18 Oct 2017 at 15:07


7
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Poured into a mug, the appearance had a dark copper to amber color with a finger’s worth of white foamy head that dissipated at a fine pace. Messy lace.
The aroma some bready malts, a touch of spicy hops, slight floral, and then sweet butter (not diacetyl).
The flavor blended sweet biscuits/bready malts to sweet butter fairly nice. Grassy and spicy hops slide in nicely. Slick biscuit/bready aftertaste and finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fair sessionability about it. Carbonation felt good, maybe just a tad more than expected, but wasn’t distracting. ABV seemed appropriate and projected as the brewer said.
Overall, mostly pretty good ESB with just a touch more carbonation than I thought would be there, but hey, coming all of the way from California and bottled, I guess it makes sense why.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Mar 2017 at 17:03


6.2
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

12oz bottle. Poured a light orange color with a small white head. Aroma was some light caramel malts, light toasted notes, with a touch of sweet malts. Light fruity notes.

Tried from Bottle on 17 Jul 2015 at 00:55


6.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Old rating. Bottle from old town. Pours a light copper color with a modest white head. Strong citrus aroma with a hint of malt. Grapefruit, orange and pine stand out on the palate. Fairly well-balanced. Nice bitter finish.

Tried from Bottle on 11 Mar 2015 at 05:22


6.4
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

How: Draught.
Where: Svenska Hamburgerköket, Stockholm.
Appearance: Amber colour with a white head.
Aroma: Malt, caramel, citrus, hops.
Body: Medium body and carbonation.
Flavour: Hops, citrus, yeast, floral, fruit.

Tried on 10 Oct 2014 at 11:32


6.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6

12 oz bottle labelled Belk’s ESB. Pours a copper color with moderate head. Aromas of sweet malts, bread and light orangey fruit. Flavors are similar with additional toffee notes and a long grassy bitter finish

Tried from Bottle on 29 Sep 2014 at 16:41


6.4
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

On tap at Anderson Valley, pours a hazy copper orange with a small white head. Aroma is very subtle, with light notes of vanilla, bourbon, and English hops. Flavour is unusual, bringing out loads of wood, vanilla, English malt, and English hops in back. Don't think I've ever had a barrel aged ESB, but this execution is done very well, despite the seemingly odd should of styles to barrel age. Everything is in balance and harmony. Good stuff, just not really my thing.
Earlier Rating: 6/30/2010 Total Score: 3.5
22 oz. bottle, pours hazy golden with a white head. Great aroma of hops, caramel malt and some fruit. Flavour is somewhat muted - caramel, some hops, wheat and herbs. Very nice.

Tried from Draft on 23 Dec 2013 at 21:01


4.3
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 3 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

Bottle. Metallic lemon and barley malt aroma. Hazy amber with moderate head. Cardboard, light barley malt, and moderately bitter herbal and metallic flavor. Mediocre.

Tried from Bottle on 19 Oct 2013 at 18:50


5.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6

Golden. Bitterness and grapefruit seeds in aroma. American rather.than British. Missing desired britishness for an ESB.

Tried from Can on 07 Oct 2013 at 11:52