Throwback Brewery Campfire Smoked Porter 6.4% ABV

This is the graphic that Throwback uses to brand Campfire Porter.  Personally, I don't understand this imagery.  It looks like a sate bear dancing in the waft of burning excrement, or possibly its leg is satisfyingly on fire.  We can't see the other leg so there is speculation abound.

Wanton for White Birch, our beer/food serving person at Firefly  asserted "distribution problems" and this left me on the doorstep of a classic near-terminal spiral of second choice beer indecision.  Andy stepped in before it could even start and prompted this suggestion, and it was stellar.

It tastes weird, but like medicine that actually doesn't taste gross and makes you want to eat more medicine, it's a very pleasant weird.  I haven't drank with any regularity for the better part of this year now, so my ability to describe beer is severely impaired by the fact that I now have the tolerance of a Utah middle schooler.  But this beer must be acquired if you are local to southern New Hampshirechusetts.  Locally sourced ingredients and made by CHICKS.  This one wins big.  Dark, rife with peculiar, interesting flavor, and in no way overwhelming to palate or a gut full of beef stroganoff, I implore you to try it.

Red Hook ESB

 ESB stands for Extra Special Bitter.  There's nothing extra special about Red Hook's ESB.   Red Hook brewery is the overly opinionated hot chick who is 1/8th as smart as she thinks she is.  You really want to like her, but she keeps saying embarassingly stupid shit and you're tired of defending her to your friends.  In defiance of your biological imperative, you decide it isn't worth it and move on.

In the 12 years that I've been legally drinking Red Hook's offerings, they have had about four amazing beers that enjoyed critical success and were subsequently torpedoed by the powers that be.  This is like the aforementioned hot chick shaving her head for reasons that elude sense and rational thought. The end result is disappointment, a broken heart and a bitter taste in the mouth, not entirely unlike my experience with Red Hook ESB tonight.

In the glass, ESB looks and smells fantastic.  In the mouth,  coppery and bitter.  I don't know what the hop bill is, but the flavor hops are right on while they went way over the top with bittering. The style known as "bitter" is really a bit of a misnomer and I'm not exactly sure how it came about. Bitters, according to style, tend more toward the sweet side than the bitter.  This beer has everything it needs to be enjoyable, Red Hook just needs to back off on the hops.