Picadilly Circus

If you haven't been to the Union Brewing Company in Carmel lately you're missing out big time. Since opening these guys have gone from one house beer to three or four. They have a great selection of some unique bombers in their beer fridge for purchase. They have added a beautiful outdoor seating area that backs up to the Monon Trail and now they are grilling brats and burgers depending on the day.

But the real reason that you're missing out is because you are missing their awesome cask ales. The Picadilly Pale was one of my favorites, that is until they released the Picadilly Circus just recently. Picadilly Circus is an ESB done in the traditional English fashion with EKG, Challenger and Target hops. For those of you who haven't had an ESB, it's a Pale Ale somewhere between a standard pale and an IPA as far as hops go.

Picadilly Circus is just like the Picadilly Pale but they added a metric shit ton of Indiana honey. This jacked its ABV up, it had a 7.2% abv, which is totally more my speed.

The beer comes out a golden straw yellow color with that slow, foamy white head that you get from cask ales. It has a nice herbal earthy aroma and the honey fits in perfectly sweetening the smell. The ESB has tangy hops that have a nice consistant bitterness. The hops are balanced out so well by the sweetness of the extra honey and just a hint of boozy heat. It has some great notes of toffee and honey with a nice bready backbone. The cask gives it that nice silky smooth mouth feel that I love.

The Picadilly Circus is smooth and drinkable for an ESB with an amped up ABV. If you haven't checked out the UBC lately you are missing out.

I give it a 4