On tap at Dragonmead. Deep red-brown body that filters most but not all light; thin buff-colored head. Sweet milk chocolate aroma, lactose, and coffee. The milk sugar dominates the palate, reminding me of tasting lactose right out of the plastic container in high school biology class. The chocolate, coffee, and roasted notes don’t quite congeal with the lactose, but I still enjoyed the flavor. I can’t knock milk stouts.

On tap at Dragonmead. Mostly clear orange body, medium light tan head. Typical pumpkin pie spice aroma, with nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. slightly thin, cinnamon body with nutmeg and light bready notes and an earthy, rather chalky finish. Somewhat thin. Nothing special, I’m afraid.

Deep orange-brown sediment-laden body, medium-thick creamy, dense buff-colored head. Brown sugar aroma with toffee, toast, and light caramels. Rich, toasty flavor, quite cerealy (Cheerios), with sweet brown sugar and light caramel tones. Woody and earthy, definitely creating the "twig-n-berries" effect I expect from this style. Creamy, dense and complex palate that avoids the sometimes harsh off-notes found in many examples of the style. Well-balanced and classy.

2003 draught bourbon aged Dark, muddy brown color, with some dark ruddy maroon notes. Yellowish-beige head immediately fizzles away. Aroma is very alcoholic, though I enjoyed it. All of the typical bourbon flavors come out here, and they come out immediately. Alcohol, coconut, wood, grapes, vanilla, lightly smoky malt. It’s over-the-top and unbalanced and just incredibly powerful. They need to either A) make a more powerful beer to handle this or B)take this off the bourbon sooner. Just my two cents. As a side note, I took a growler of this home and drank most of it, but let about a quarter of it sit for a couple weeks just to see what would happen. It was watery and oxidized, of course, but the flavors were pure bourbon and sharp ethanol, further showing the dominance of the barrel. Hopefully the newer releases had a more balanced barrel character. It’s funny to see how novel and great I thought this was at the time, never having tried a barrel aged beer (this was my first one ever). Thinking back on it now, I can remember how horribly over-bourboned this was. Dragonmead’s beers are all highly attenuated to begin with, this being no exception, and I don’t think any of them are well-suited to bourbon aging for extended periods of time (they kept this batch in the barrel for about 6-8 months as I recall).

From brewpub "keggy." Even the foam has a nice bitter/porter taste to it. deep brown in color. The beer itself is a little sweet, but the English hop profile really plays up well.

Growler. Well, a definite Belgian beer taste. Very malty, yet somehow creamy and smooth. Still sugary, as should be expected, but kind of easy going down.

2004 draught. As inveigler says, it’s got that burnt tire/burnt rubber flavor. Lightly soapy and metallic with some light caramel sweetness and nuttiness. Hints of roast mixed with the burnt/metallic flavors on the finish. Still, the flavor holds pretty well and it’s got some yeast flavor true to style. Average it seems, and no match for it’s neighbor’s (Kuhnhenn) version.

2004 draught. A hazy apricot orange, translucent with a small white head. Aroma of deep, rich apricots, some light wheat and a hint of hops and yeast. So far so good. Flavor is very chewy and meaty, it’s like they left the apricots in there and just ground them up. The wheat and apricots mix well and create a chewy texture, with an almost cheesy like flavor. Finishes pretty quickly though with some papery tasting hops on the end, somewhat watery but overall I enjoyed this one a good amount.

2004 hand pump. Looks wonderful for a mild, chocolate brown with some bright red tinges peeking through and a good light tan head. Smells clean and lightly chocolatey/nutty with a hint of soily hops. Flavor is very light and mild (surprise!). I feel like I’m working in a mine in England and drinking this stuff on my lunch break, per tradition. It sure does taste authentic. Clean, light nuttiness and fruitiness. Light bodied, watery but true to style.