Chicagoist's Beer Of The Week: Temperance Beer Co's Smittytown ESB

By Jason Baldacci in Food on Nov 22, 2013 8:00PM

Another week, another new local brewery. Or at least that's the way things seem to be around these parts lately. the Chicago area was home to only a handful of breweries for such a long time. Now we're running out of fingers and toes to count all of the local players in the game of beer. It's an exciting time to be a beer drinker and we hope it brings to life some really great beers over the next year as more breweries pop up. We found one beer we really liked this week from a brand new brewery just north of the city.

Temperance Beer Co. recently opened up shop in Evanston, which also happens to be the birthplace of the temperance movement. It's a touch of irony that we appreciated while we tried one of their beers this week, the Smittytown ESB. It pours a nice medium amber-brown color in the glass and we picked up notes of biscuits and toffee on the nose. On the palate Smittytown drinks with a pleasantly creamy consistency, putting forth a more bitter toffee flavor than the waft we got on the nose, along with hints of Brazil nuts, burnt caramel and a even a little essence of fresh baked sticky buns. Towards the backend, a very earthy astringent hop profile comes in and rides strong through the finish to leave a lingering bitterness that we found quenching. At 4.8 percent alcohol content, Smittytown ESB is a medium-bodied yet easy drinking and delightfully malt-forward beer to enjoy during any time of the day.

ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter. It's a classic English style of beer that's usually amber to brown in color with pronounced malts, muted earthy hops and a dry finish. When you consider all of the pale ales, IPAs, porters and stouts that you find around the city, you can see that a lot of American brewers are making English-Style Ales. But they are also taking a lot of liberties to make these beers their own. American versions tend to be bolder, richer, more bitter and higher in alcohol and overall just jam-packed with different kinds of flavors. Whereas the English Ale Tradition is more about balance and easier drinking beers that will sit on the table with a variety of different foods. A beer that won't turn your day upside down if you have a couple pints on your lunch break. While Smittytown ESB takes a tiny liberty with some American hops being thrown in the kettle, we found it to be pretty refined overall and a very nice representation of a classic style that's been tailored to fit American palates.

Smittytown ESB is only on draft at the moment and only available in a few places, so be sure to check beermenus.com to see where you can snag a pint this weekend.