Draught at the brewery, 3/29/14 and 4/3/14
Nicely bright, bronze-amber body is topped by a moderate amount of light tan head that shows strong retention.
Oily, phenolic smoke in the nose is deliciously strong and filled with citric, juicy, leafy hops. Strong malt presence, as well, adding sweet graham cracker, vanilla and tons of honey. Great, lasting aroma, down to the last drop in the nose. Very rich, bordering over-the-top (and probably actually is, but for the fact that I dont think any amount of smokiness could be over-the-top for my tastes). No alcohol or flaws.
Strong, zesty, citric and light pine hop bitterness is met with a sweet, salted toffee maltiness that comes across sticky, and perhaps a touch syrupy, but for the phenolic, smokey dryness and fair amount of hop acid. The smoke flavor is absolutely divine. Rich, bacony, oily and unending. It works really, really well with the hop bitterness, I think. Carbonation is medium, a touch loose in places. It seems they were a bit worried about the potential hop and smoke assault and understanably opted for a bit maltier of a beer. So it’s a bit sweet for my tastes, though only slightly so. A little rough around the edges and the carbonation could stand to be a bit stronger/tighter to really pull apart some of this sticky, near-syrupy maltiness, and hop/smoke oiliness. All that being said, it still goes down pretty easy.