Clocktower Brew Pub are a prominent chain of Brew Pubs in Ottawa, as a matter of fact there are 4 of them around town. Readers may wonder why I have yet to review any of their beers given that they are so prominent here in Ottawa. The answer is that every time I have tried their beers I have found that the quality has ranged from bad to average so I struggle to bring myself to one of their pubs. Regardless of my lukewarm opinion of their beers I found myself in the Westboro location with my girlfriend. Of their 5 beers the ESB seemed the most appealing as ESB is my favourite beer type and unfortunately their beer still needs work.
Wishart's ESB is indeed a standard ESB style beer. The pour looked a very promising malty brown with very little in the way of head. Unfortunately the opening of the beer lets down the side a bit, it starts of being way to watery for a proper ESB. This does progress into a pretty decent malty middle bit that is punctuated with a bitter punch that is quite surprising given the rest of the beer. Unfortunately this bitter punch makes the beer seem really unbalanced, the watery beginning and bitter end makes it hard to appreciate. Most ESB's are fairly complicated but this one is pretty simple, which was a bit disappointing. Regardless of the balance issues this is actually a decent beer. It is not pretentious and it is nice and drinkable, I just feel as though it needs refinement.
It's available at the 4 Ottawa brewpubs in the Glebe, Byward Market, New Edinburgh and Westboro.
Rating: 3 Steins
What you need to know
Website:
http://clocktower.ca/
Twitter:
@The_clocktower
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