XX Bitch Creek

Touted as a “Double ESB Ale,” the XX Bitch Creek Grand Teton Brewing Company takes everything in the Bitch Creek ESB recipe and basically doubles it. A limited release, it makes for an imposing brew that throws around aromas and flavors with reckless abandon – in a very enticing way. Dripping with notes of grapefruit and dark malt, the aroma is quintessentially, unapologetically American. The gobs of malt and citrusy American hops that dominate the flavor intrigued Rick, who proclaimed the nose “a caramel coated pine tree,” and complimented “the exquisite balance of competing aromas.” A hazy, dense brown, imbued with a distinctly orange glow, this beer lies in the glass cloaked by a small, yet creamy collar of foam. The beer lives up to its “Double ESB” title, filling the mouth with loads of bright citrus hop flavors and alcohol warming. Tom truly enjoyed this beer’s “big, boozy brown ale profile” and the decidedly malty balance that kept the beer from being a brown IPA. Lee, as well, liked this beer’s brash mingling of “sticky, pungent hops” and sweet, caramel malt, deeming the experience “a cage fight between hops and malt, with malt winning by TKO.” Difficult to categorize, but terrifyingly easy to drink, XX Bitch Creek merits respect for its deft melding of hop and malt, but especially for its well-camouflaged strength of 7.5 percent ABV.