It may come as no surprise that being the wife of a brewer means all travel plans MUST include visiting breweries. (Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way!) This was no different for my honeymoon with Adam in the summer of 2017. As we prepped for a big day, we decided to travel somewhere that wasn’t the regular beach escape. We have friends that live in Nottingham, England (Hi Holmes Family!) and decided to visit London and Nottingham, where we went to the oldest pub in England, before a quick flight over to Ireland to explore Cork and Dublin.
When we arrived in England, I was most excited for some true English cider and gin. At the Crown & Anchor in Covenant Garden, our first stop on the trip, Adam decided to try something different – an Extra Special Bitter (ESB) – and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. It’s been sometime – and a few beers! – since our honeymoon, but I believe it was a Fuller’s ESB. The style of an ESB is described as light in alcohol balanced with light hop character, and the malt adds a toasty and fruity taste. It’s color ranges from golden to copper. The name is very much deceiving with the word “bitter” in the style – it’s actually not at all bitter! With walking the city and stopping into several pubs throughout the day, having a 4%-ish ABV beer was extremely refreshing!
When we got home, Adam decided that he would brew an ESB, and it was indeed delicious! The Ignite team decided to add it to our beer portfolio and we named it “Bitter Thoughts”. We had a couple jokes and thoughts behind the name, one being that the English are still bitter over our independence from them. While thinking it was a witty name, we hadn’t quite considered that with being a lesser-known style in our area, we’d have to explain the beer and the name and that it isn’t actually bitter. This led the team to decide to rename this tasty beer to make it more approachable and to spread the awareness of such a great beer.
With the task of renaming this beer, we decided to let you all, our biggest supporters, help us name it! Starting this Thursday 2/28, visit us in the tap room to give it a try to get your creative juices going…and then give us your thoughts! We’ll be collecting your ideas for what we should name our ESB on Facebook & Instagram through 3/17. We’ll then post a poll of our favorite names for voting. If your name is chosen as the ultimate winner, you’ll win an Ignite merch bundle and (most importantly) bragging rights!
Stay tuned to our Facebook & Instagram for ALL of the details, and we can’t wait to hear what you think!
Cheers!
Marie