An 'imperial brown ale' (or de facto a dark barleywine) of sorts brewed at Tall Poppy for kraddel's 10,000th rating event at Beerlovers Bar in Antwerp. Very loose and bubbly, pale greyish beige, thin head quickly reduced to as good as nothing, over a hazy, deep chocolate brown beer with misty red wine-burgundy hue. Aroma of walnuts, wet brown bread, brown rum, soaking wet tree leaves, caramel candy, treacle or indeed maple syrup, kahlua, glue and an unpleasant note of sewer water; vanilla has apparently already flown away. Sweet onset with sourish edge, fig juice, dates, pear, drenched in maple syrup stickiness with very soft carbonation bordering on flat, clearly undercarbonated even for this kind of beer; an astringent solventy and eventually boozy effect underlies a caramelly and nutty malt sweetishness enhanced by both maple syrup and cocoa, and evolves into a somewhat wry finish with rather hot rum-like alcohol and a herbal, tea-like accent, with solvents and booze dominating and pulling things out of balance and blotting the little vanilla aroma that was intended. Sticky, glueish, undercarbonated, unbalanced and too boozy, with too much unfermented sweetness and an off-putting H2S note to it: clearly something went technically wrong here, this beer contains too much maple syrup and alcohol for what it can carry. A pity, Tall Poppy has produced some fine brews in their few years of existence so far but this one did not make a very positive impression on me. Could have been so much more.

Thanks to Kraddel! Draft glass @ Kraddel's 10K Madness. Pours bit flat-looking dark brown syrup, little in the way of head. Nose is burned bread, burned toast, bit watery due to carbonation brown sugar, dark malt syrup, almost bit sour. Taste is burned bread, malt syrup, almost acidic, unfermented sugar, cheap brown sugar water, in need of carbonation, flat basically, adjusts are lost. Didn’t feel 11 % ABV. Strange beer but one that makes perfect sense coming from Kraddel, too bad that all the adjuncts were lost & the whole didn’t properly carbonate etc. PS: Zeal & Ardor are a nice band.

Draught No head but faint tan rim; brown-black beer. Mix of caramel/toffee and ashes/tobacco; hints of liquorice. Dry-woody-liquorice, but also chocolate, cocoa. Much less sweet than the nose suggested, no toffee left in the mouth. Generous dark malts, much as in strong dark German beers. Feels only medium bodied, bit slick. Finish/aftertaste has a lot of wryness, woody. Not exactly a "quaffing" beer - the alcohol is improbably hidden, then jumps suddenly on the fore.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Tall Poppy - Come On Brown (by Tall Poppy Brewing Company):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 2/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.2/5

28/VII/18 - on tap, shared @ Kraddel's 10K event, Beerlovers Bar (Antwerpen) - BB: n/a (2018-923) Thanks to the Ghent crew for sharing the glass!

Clear amber to hazelnut brown beer, no head. Aroma: lots of caramel, sweet, alcohol, sugary, some dried fruits. MF: soft to no carbon, medium body. Taste: very spicy, dry, lots of tobacco, some caramel, soft roast, lots of chocolate. Aftertaste: overripe banana, bitter touch, some chocolate, bit unpleasant.

Tap at Kraddel's 10k Madness, congrats to Dylan! Pun on Zeal & Ardor - Come On Down. Brown color with beige head. Aroma is fresh cocoa, chocolate, toffee, don't really get the pastry additions. Taste is coffee, light caramel, chocolate. Oily mouthfeel with low carbonation. Tasty, and very well balanced, hides the alcohol extremely well!