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Fuller'sESB ExportABV 5.9% • Vol 500 ml • bottle • UK • Expensive • Flavour 7.5 |
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This is the bottled version of Fuller's persistently award-winning cask beer, and is extremely good. The beer is slightly sweet-smelling (a hint of honeysuckle?), with hop flowers dominating a treacley, malty background. On the palate it is bitter-tasting, with a fine balance of lightly roast malt and heavy (but not overstewed) hops resulting in a rich but rounded flavour. It has a lingering honey and bitter malt aftertaste. Overall, the excellence of this beer can be credited to the combination of rich treacley malt character and just the right amounts of aroma and bittering hops (i.e. lots), culminating in a complex, very pleasant pint. Despite its strength, ESB works dangerously well as a session beer. OBBD reviewer: Sparks |
Review updated 27/08/1998
I have just tried ESB although it said 6.3% on the bottle. A wonderfully full flavoured beer, despite its strength I found it easy to drink, and very
enjoyable, worth the money in my view.
Andy Cooper
The BEST ESB available in the States as far as I have found. The Redhook, Pyramid, and others have paled in comaparison to the complexity of this exceptional brew. As far as I am concerned it is the best Extra Special Bitter in the World!
Dustin Alcorn
It had better be the best ESB, as it's the original! :o) All those US ESBs were inspired by it, as far as I know... Awesome beer, by the way.
Laurent Mousson
It's like mergin oneself with a dark yellow rose in the garden ... after the rain. What a taste. What a taste.
Hakan Falk
Beeeautiful! wot more can i say.
ant
Excellent - echoing everyone else's sentiments, it's the best ESB, period! Luckily, it's widely available here in the US.
Matt Azzara
Dangerously drinkable for such a strong beer. The first one or two almost slip down. Makes (the also delectable) London Pride seem rather weedy.
smith
Although not bottle-conditioned, this beer competes with the very best. Not a session beer though!
Best bottled beer in England. The archetypal ESB.
smudger
Goes down easier than a $2 whore!
Cabbie H
Pride is much nicer, but the fruity tones of this fragrant bitter are still highly enjoyable.
Patrick Gray
This beer is magnificent, if I died drowning in it I would be happy. Seems to me to have honey and aniseed and nothing else tastes quite like it. It batters London Pride and that's saying something. Superb!!!!
El Tigre Del Norte
What I like is its balance. Most other beers, even very good beers, have at least one or two notes that you have to get past. Not this ESB. The entire thing conspires to perfection in a bottle. The only thing to worry about, at least in hindsight, is the alchohol. One is usually enough.
Hopalong
This seriously underperforms in the bottle. It's a dead beer, and that gradually becomes obvious the further down the bottle you get. It starts promising - quite fruity and nutty, but soon fades. That initial fresh promise gives some indication of the cask performance, but the bottle is nothing special. Darkish with some gentle hop bite, but the crude sugar malt tastes too false.
Silk Tork
One of the very best beers I´ve ever tasted. Wonderful sweet fruity taste that changes to bitter after taste. I've had a chance to taste the real ale version of it once and boy, was that good..
bb
Bitter aftertaste but a lovely beer. Recommended
Twanky
Delightfully bitter and complex. No better example of the style.
stonecrusher
Near the top of my list of all-time great brews. Does Fuller's make any bad beer?
Joe Knepper
My Father-in-Law who's 75 says this is almost "addictive" and we only seem to get it in Hornsea (East Yorks) now and again! Where can I buy it please?
Steve Eddins
Another good brew from Fuller's, smooth and very easy to drink.
Mr folio
The best, bar none. I adore it. It is so fruity with that wonderful marmalade taste in the background. what a brewery!
Clive Parrott
This couldn't be as good as the majority of the reviews suggest, and I foolishly dismissed it as such. Wrong! This is phenomenal, even better than the ubiquitous London Pride. Smooth, nutty, and compelling. The smoothness belies the strength. Tremendous!!!
glyn b
heaven in a bottle, the complexity of the flavours is striking, very expensive in Australia, inspiring stuff to a homebrewer.
Jason Leske
This is the best ESB available in the US bar none. My favorite beer, it is quite complex and fruity with a strong bitter punch. I also like the London Pride very much, as with all Fuller's products but ESB is the greatest....Liquid crack
Rich B
As good, if not better than London pride. Deceptively strong!
Lester
One of the best bitters around. Rerate: Cask conditioned at the Blackbird, Earls Court, London. Copper coloured, no head, minimal carbonation. Moderate aroma, initial mellow flavour, then a dominant but pleasant hoppiness. I wish we could get the bottled version here in Norway. (No cask ales around here!)
Sigmund
Just bought the last two cases (for the price of one) from a local cash and carry. Very good beer in every respect. A bit strong for steady drinking, but very pleasant before or with a suitable meal.
R. Mark Clayton
I agree with Sparks - 'extremely good'!I love the hints of marmalade in the aftertaste. An amazingly well-balanced and complex ale; if only I could try the cask version! 9/10 from me.
Mark, Australia
500 ml bottle, now at last available in Norway (Vinmonopolet)! Clear amber colour, large fluffy head. Pleasant aroma of citrussy hops and toffee, hints of oak and leather. Flavour has some toffee and nuttiness, but first and foremost a distinct hoppy bitterness from start to finish, grapefruity notes. Hops linger in the long aftertaste. Not quite as good as the cask version, but still very good! 8/10
Sigmund
Top Beer - whether down South or up here in the Highlands - This pint from Fullers would always be one of my first choices. (Very nice when mixed with a bottle of Golden Pride. Not a session beer, one or two is pleasant enough for this lightweight...)
Glen Rainy Place
Superb beer. Nuff said.
John
For flavour, this is untouchable. The balance between fruity, syrupy sweetness and bitter hops is just perfect. It's price and lack of bottle conditioning make Young's Special London Ale a more regular purchase for me but otherwise it's very hard to fault. A classic for sure.
Mike
What a joy to sit back with an ESB in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Since being introduced to ESB 12 years ago, my beer consumption has remained stable, but myenjoyment has skyrocketed.
Pat Riggins DVM
i was truly shocked to see colonials talking about my favourite beer,i was convinced that only the english,the irish the scots and the belgians knew what the word meant.keep trying.
j.rotten london/dublin
Yes,j.rotten, you Brits can certainly teach us colonials a thing or two about beer.I really love the taste of this beer and I am not a "bitter" man. I prefer dark ales. But this beer is just fantastic. Thank you Fuller's.
Greg Osborne from Oudtshoorn, South Africa
A lovely tasty brew which always lands me in the dog house with the Mrs. Smashing ale brewed to perfection and only 10 pints gets me smashed out of my skull.
Steve E17
One of the most radically enhanced freakouts you can throttle your gray matter with. The Beatnik Beat of the Earth...(Awesome Beer)
BeatnikMan
haven't tried it yet but i definitely will after seeing that picture with the review. looks very refreshing.
unbiased
[March 2008; on draught at the Fisherman's Cottage, Reading] Draught version is a "mere" 5.5%. Unmistakeable Fullers flavour, with a bit of extra malt and a slight hint of marmalade. A hint of dry oakiness in the aftertaste, but otherwise there isn't a lot going on here. Given the strength (very high for a draught bitter) I had expected something rather special. Instead I was disappointed to find it had less depth of flavour than the weaker Fullers London Pride. Does go down dangerously easily (as seems to be the case with all Fullers beers), but leaves rather a syrupy mouthfeel. (6/10)
wheresthepath
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