4.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

On draught at Publick House 9/27/2005. Pours a dark brown with some light magenta-auburn tinges as it settles out. Lighter chestnut browns around the edges as well. Head is small, off-white to beige but fairly well-retained, with light lacing. After settling, it’s quite transluscent, bordering on clear. Looks like a porter. Aroma of cigars, bakers chocolate, light cherries and dates, light yeast and buttercream, and then an appearance of light coffee?? Flavor takes it a step further and gets roasty. Not toasted, not bitter chocolate, but roast. Coffee flavored and porter like. It clearly has a Belgianish yeast, though it’s rather light on that, with some light caramel and cocoa sugars. Body gets watery very quickly, could use a significant dose of carbonation, while the roast just takes over. Probably wouldnt finish this if it was in a bottle. Hints of vanilla, cream and almost oat-like in flavor. Very odd, don’t know if this was supposed to be a Belgian porter, whatever the hell that would be, but it clearly called itself an Abbey Style ale, so I’ve just got to assume that something went wrong in brewing, or in the heads of the brewers. Either way, it’s relatively uncomplex, with a medium body and too loose a consistency.