5.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Freshly tapped keg, served in a stemmed wine glass quite cold at the Tap on 1/7/06. A burly brownish-black colored beer sits murkily in the glass, with a quickly receding beige head, that remains at a ring and leaves little clumps of residue as it recedes. Soft chocolate, peanut skins, very faint green veggies and vanilla all crowd in at first, but as the beer warms and breathes, a light dryness from earthy brown malts and dry choco-caramel really takes over. A distinct, but unidentifiable (to me) fuzzy, almost herbal quality is in the beer. Like dried oregano or myrtle; some very dry, leafy tea-like note anyhow. Very lightly spicy as well, with a touch of clove phenol. The flavor begins with a thick, sticky and very chewy, viscous caramel and chocolate mix. Sugary as all get out; extremely low attenuation. More notes of the herbal-spice note, with a growing sense of clove, though it is held greatly at bay by the thick malts. Finishes with a vanilla creaminess that is balanced by strong warming. As it warms and the more I drink, I try to extract what might be schwarzbier-like notes, but the palate just seems to get overloaded with sugar, chocolate and dry alcohol notes. Some light anise-like flavors, perhaps and a persistent yeastiness (though ultimately losing the battle to the sugars). I’d like to see more elegance from it, more complex flavors. Texture is thick and chewy, carbonation is very low.