Bottle courtesy of Butters on 05/11/2009. Clear dark brown body with ruby highlights and a medium creamy tan head. Sweet toasty, caramel, bready, smoke and a bit of wood aroma. Sweet smokey flavor, some toasty, roasty and caramel notes, with some light fruit, molassas, and a bit of wood in the finish. Medium body with moderately low carbonation and a very smooth finish. I’m still not convinced this is actually 10.4%, it hides it awfully well.

Bottle. Pours dark brown, but then glows a remarkable purple red in the glass. It was almost difficult to get a head out of it but it did manage a 1 finger foam. I was afraid there for a second. Nose is nicely smoky with a background of caramel perhaps woody but maybe I’m trying too hard. Smooth and rounded with a thick melanoidin base, topped with a layer of smoky goodness. There is perhaps a touch of oak in the finish but it blends with the smoke to create a char tone that falls short of stout levels. There’s a vague fruitiness that becomes apparent as it warms slowly in the glass. Banana perhaps, and there was a good deal of pineapple in the second pour from the bottle. It starts to become rather markedly sweet, so keep this one on the cool side.