Yet another photo from The Full Pint
I first noticed Sweetwater Brewery because of the rainbow trout on the bottle. (I’m a sucker for trout….brook trout mostly, but I think rainbow trout are beautiful as well). I tried their 420 Extra Pale Ale first, and I found it to be a tasty but subtle brew. That was back in 2007 and I haven’t picked up any Sweetwater since then, for some reason. I recently found myself at Publix looking for beer, so I went with the subject of today’s beer review, Sweetwater’s Motor Boat Ale. As the bottle puts it, this is their “titillating version of an ESBBBBBBBBB!
The Pour
This unfiltered ESB pours to a sediment-rich orange/coppery color. My first bottle I overpoured, resulting in a very large 2 1/2 finger thick head that crested the mouth of the glass like a nice, light tan pillowy dome. When you take a look at the beer in the glass you can see the yeasty sediment slowly sinking through the beer. It’s funny, I noticed that when you raise the glass to your lips, the action of raising and then lowering the glass swirls the beer around, and the sediment swirling around the glass resembles some sort of awesome snow globe made up of yeast and golden nectar! There is a decent amount of lacing left on the glass as you drink the beer.
The Nose
This has a nicely hoppy nose that features citrus mixed with floral scents. There’s also a slightly powdery hint to the nose. It smells interesting!
The Taste
The taste of this beer nicely matches the nose. The hop in the taste, however, is more floral than citrusy, with a powdery dryness as well. The hop doesn’t linger on the finish as long as I expected it to, which makes it finish pretty clean. There’s a good malt backbone as well, giving it a well rounded body and a slight sweetness. The beer tastes of yeast and a slight dustiness as well. All of the beer’s flavors really take turns in the spotlight.
Overall
This light-medium brew has more character and depth of flavor than I expected it to. I thought I’d come out of this review thinking this beer wasn’t half bad, but I found it quite enjoyable.
Recommended
Definitely. This beer has good, simple flavors that intermingle well. No one flavor really overpowers or hogs the spotlight. They all well up on the palate on their own but also act as a well organized team.
Price: $8.69/6 12 oz bottles
ABV: 5.6%
