2005 bottle from FlacoAlto, thanks man! Brown head is small and quickly vanishing. A light coffee-with-a-lot-of-cream color. Body is dark-purple/black with some deep burnt umber tinges. Low carbonation and too slick to provide lacing. Smells roasty, earthy, dry. Light dark, dark roast notes mixed with fruit are apparent right away. Prunes and rich barley with some hearty oats. Flavor is 110% raisins and earthy barley with prunes. Lots of pruniness! Wow this is a refreshing, modest gravity stout. It’s nice to sneak in a non-Imperial stout every once and a while! Light hops bitterness mixed with the dry roast. Earthy, crunchy, almost granola-like flavors. Currants and a peanut brittle note hit. Retronasal prunes and lots of vinousness. All in a good balance. Really big, soft bubbles pop in the mouth. Light bitterness carried on the big, easygoing bubbles. This gives it a slightly watery feel, but it’s hardly much to complain about. No alcohol ever noted. Hops, roast, dark fruits for days. . . A real easy sipper and sort of reminds me of a fresh, warm St. Ambroise Oatmeal stout minus the coffee. Very roasty though, sweet and malty, with an almost salty edge at the end. Yes!

2005 bottle, I assume (correct me if I’m wrong, Sebastian) graciously sent by FlacoAlto for no other reason than to let me try some Arizona micros. How about that?!
Initially, a small head appears, a sort of marble-cream-white, but it quickly flees to the edges of the glass. Smells of prunes and toffee with some light, dry, earthy roast. The roast is quite light and lets in some chocolate and light soy notes. No hops noted in the nose. The aroma strength is fairly weak, though. Flavor begins with a chocolate-fudge note, sweet and malty, with dry, earthy toffee lingering. Reminds me of what a good cigar and some espresso might taste like, only very faint tobacco and coffee notes are apparent. Very dry on the end, as I mentioned now about 3 times, but a sweet chocolate is there for balance. Very low carbonation, medium body and a slightly watery consistency. No alcohol noted. Chocolate covered prunes linger on and I find little in the way of yeast, though I’m not surprised as the beer seems to be filtered. Hmm, odd, I liked this beer much more than my score indicates, but I guess it’s a tough style for me, statistically.

This pours a huge head that completely fills the glass. As the head breaks into chunky large bubbles and slips into the glass, a medium yellow beer appears below. Decent hop aroma that has a citric tartness which accompanies it. Some mustiness as well. The flavor is balanced between sweet and bitter, but delivered with a flat dry palate and thin dry finish. Thanks to Wohlfs for this one!