Northgate Parapet ESB Review

Name: Northgate Parapet ESB
Style: Extra Special Bitter
ABV: 5.6%

With all the new breweries that have opened up in Minnesota, it's sometimes hard to keep tabs. Which is a good reason why I'm excited about tonight's interview as I have an offering from a fairly new brewery. All the way from Northeast Minneapolis, I present to you Parapet ESB from Northgate Brewing.

Now the first question I asked myself when I picked this up was "What's a Parapet?" I did a bit of research and found out that a parapet is: a low wall at the edge of a platform, roof, or bridge. When you take into consideration that Northgate's logo resembles a castle, it starts to make sense.

Parapet pours a hazy orange-brown color with a fair amount of visible carbonation. The head is very foamy upon the first pour but settles into a rather thin appearance once it settles down. Not really much in terms of lacing, but what is there is quite soapy.

The nose has a nice yeastiness to it with a bit of marmalade sweetness in there as well. Also on the back end are some flaked barley, toffee malts and a slight bitter hoppiness.

Much like the nose, it starts out very yeast forward. The marmalade sweetness is a tad bit stronger here. The toffee malts provide a good foundation for the rest of the beer. The aftertaste is actually quite bitter compared to the rest of the flavor with a strong piney hop bitterness. The body is moderate in weight with some moderate carbonation.

Being that this is my first offering from Northgate, I found this to be pretty good and reasonably priced for what I got it for. It's got a robust enough flavor profile to the point that I would buy this on a regular basis once it becomes available in my area. If you're ever in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, I would make it a priority to try this out!

Northgate Parapet ESB - 9/10