Bottle at home ... with Jan and charlotte ... Deep black ... thin lacing ... light smoke and roast malt ... deep malt again a little smokey woody ... quite a bit of hop in background ... decent solid porter.

22oz bottle gifted to me by notalush, thanks a lot Brandon I really wanted to try this before I left NY. Brewed October 7th, bottled December 4th. Poured into a Melbourne Bros glass with an all black color and a medium but quickly fading brown head. Aroma is all chocolate, fumy, dark roast, and coffee. Not much smoke in the nose. Taste is similar with an earthy bitterness coming from the roast. The smoke is only apparent in the finish and its subtle. Its an original smokiness, not rauch or peat. Its more like an airy forest type of smokiness. The mouthfeel is a bit too overcarbonated at first but settles as the beer breathes. Very nice stuff and I hope to drink a lot more from this brewery.

The pour is fairly thick, nearly black, and almost completely still - no sound when I popped the cap, either - the wood and smoke are fairly apparent in the nose, reminding one of an autumn campfire - these characteristics integrate really well with the roasted malt - there is even a bit of vinous character as it warms - beautiful aroma - the flavor is much less smoky than the aroma suggests - it starts out leafy bitterness, followed by some vanilla sweetness - a moderate hop profile makes sure the sweetness doesnt become too much, and roasty character settles in on top of that - the smoke you were braced for in the aroma rides in on that, and lingers in the finish - the smoke and applewood hang around on the tongue for a while, but are still pretty gentle - ie. I would like more smoke in this beer - the lack of carbonation hurts this beer a little, but otherwise this is a great first batch for a new brewery - the label on the bottle states that it was bottled about ten days ago, and I can only assume it is bottle conditioned, given the large amount of sediment at the bottom - perhaps it has not had enough time to naturally carbonate in the bottle? - I will wait a while to open my next bottle and find out.