Draft at Milk and Hops-Chelsea. Dark brown, creamy light brown head, glass coating lace. Boozy, dark malt aroma. Chocolate and licorice. Smooth, rich mouthfeel.

Bottle shared, thanks! Very dark brown with a beige head. Aroma of malt upfront with chocolate, roast and light coffee notes. Flavour is Above moderate sweet and light moderate bitter. Above medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Draught at the brewery, 4/23/16.
Jesus, these guys put out so many variants I’ve never actually taken the time to have the regular version. Finally a chance...Dark, milk chocolate brown with deeper ebony shades and a light tan head atop showing strong retention.
Chocolate, very flakey with dark bread and lots of roast. A big caramel character rises up to balance. All of JA’s beers are so much softer and approachable lately and I couldn’t be happier. Not just another obnoxiously overroasted, overbittered imperial stout/imperial porter/baltic porter, etc.....
In the mouth, plenty of dry brown bread balances caramel with milk chocolate and dry roasted notes. Lots of maltiness, with a good attenuation though leaving some residual sugar for body and balance. I don’t know if this beer is specifically sweeter because of how much of it gets barrel aged, and maybe it’s just the placebo effect, but I think it is much better barrel-aged. The malt, chocolate, bread, vanilla, caramel, etc.. really do soak up the tannin and whatever other things are thrown in the barrel. Still, for a barrel aged version to be good, the base beer has to be quite competent. And indeed it is.

Pours a dark as a moonless night black from a bottle. Not much of an aroma, just kind of a general roasted sweetness. Flavor is a slightly chocolately, with faint finishes of licorice and dark cherry. Well balanced bitterness and sweetness, hits both sufficiently and well. Very good beer.