Draft at the assaaa. Clear brown color, light tan head. Aroma of light brownies. Taste is earthy coffee. Light body. OK

On nitro-a great cascading show of tight tan head with trailing lace-black with red tint. A-chocolate, like an Easter bunny. T-dry, earthy, dusty dk malt, minerally. Generally to style.

Keg at the brewpub. Pours clear brown with a creamy tan head. The nose holds light ash and burnt toast. Light to medium sweet flavor with a bit of maple syrup, light roast, cocoa. Light bodied with average carbonation. OK finish, some further burnt toast, faint dry cocoa, earth, ash and coffee. Fine overall.

On draught at the brewpub 4/9/2005. I enjoyed that they proudly served this without nitrogen. Small greyish-beige head, rapidly dissipating, above a dark brown-black body. Aroma is quite good for a style which usually has trouble mounting much of an aroma, especially out of a convex glass in a brewpub. Licorice, mocha, sweet chocolate and light caramel, with a strong sense of vanilla beans. Flavor is fairly strong initially, with chewy choco-vanilla notes, turning in to light coffee and a lightly chewy caramel and barley malt flavor on the end. No hops and low carbonation, but enough to add some decent texture. Not overly watery, one of the least watery I have tried of the style, anyways. Another sample of this proved to be somewhat less enjoyable, as I drank the whole pint. Perhaps the chocolate just got a little boring and there is no yeastiness. Still a very enjoyable beer, and probably my favorite of the seven I tried while there.