Reviewed from notes.
The appearance was a dark brown color with a one finger off white foamy head. Some stringy lace.
The aroma had some cocoa powder, light coffee beans and grounds, roasted malts, and sweet oats.
The flavor was roughly the same slightly leaning towards the sweet side. Roastiness did seem to play more of a background. Light cocoa sweet aftertaste and finish.
The palate was about medium bodied with a decent sipping quality about it. Carbonation felt fine. ABV felt fine. Some smooth edges were felt all around.
Overall, pretty good stout that I would have again.

12oz can thanks to Steve. Pours out a hazy golden topped with a white head. Nose is nice tropical fruits citrus orange juice and leafy hops. Taste is more of the nice tropical fruits citrus juice.

Poured from a 12 oz can. Aroma is hop forward with quite a bit of mandarin, tangerine and orange. Some lighter grapefruit notes with light pine resin. Medium light malt notes with hints of caramel and toasted bread. Pours a somewhat hazy, golden orange with a medium sized, thick, white head that recedes to a thin film that lingers. Moderate lacing and small legs. Flavor is somewhat sweet with moderately strong malt notes. Some cracker malt notes but also quite a bit of caramel and toasted bread. Medium high bitterness with a moderate hop flavor. Hop flavor is dominated by orange and tangerine with some light pine resin. Some lingering hop oil and resin notes. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation. Low astringency and low alcohol warmth. Overall, a decent beer, but I don’t understand the hype. Its pretty malt forward and the hop profile lacks a wow factor.

Can. Pours lightly hazy orange, large off-white head, long lasting with good lacing. Aroma is dank, tropical, melon, mango, perfume. Flavor is light sweet, light plus bitter. Medium body, soft mouthfeel. A tad harsh.

Can directly from the States, a gift from Ster, thanks! Apparently a ’Belgian (strong) golden ale’ so doubtlessly a beer trying to fit into the old Duvel family. Does not quite look like one, though: fairly thin, bubbly, relatively loose head (instead of the tower of foam normally expected on this beer style), quickly dissolving in the middle but retaining on the edges, with some modest dots of lacing here and there, and a lightly hazy, warm and pure, very literally ’old gold’ colour with strings of visible fizz rising up from the bottom, misty and more peachy with sediment. Aroma of banana-flavored bubblegum, old cake, hint of butterscotch, very lightly toasted white bread, zucchini, pear brandy, rainwater, artisanal sweet honey, wodka, melon, Granny Smith apple, white port, wet hay, very old cloves. Fruity onset, mildly estery with most of all strong isoamylacetate (banana), next to hints of pineapple, melon, unripe pear and green apple, sweet with a sourish edge, spritzy carbonation, bit minerally but not exagerrated for the intended style, still coarsening the mouthfeel a bit though. Full, slick, bit oily body, cereally malt sweetishness with both a sweeter caramelly accent and a sharper grainy edge while the fruity esters linger a bit along with some spicy, clove-like phenols; a honeyish, but fortunately not (too) cloying sweetness also comes from residual white candi sugar, it seems, as is indeed the case in many strong Belgian blondes as well. Sweet and boozy finish: there is the caramelly and honeyish malt and sugar sweetness on the one hand, and a strong, long-stretched glow of warming, wodka-like alcohol on the other hand, barely managing to avoid unpleasant wryness - but just barely. Some floral hops in the background provide a whiff of extra bitterness, but it goes lost into the sweetness, as is so often the case in the beers that served as an example here. Alcohol heat is almost physically tangible in the throat; yeast bitterness is left behind in the back of the mouth as well. If the aim was to make a strong, boozy Belgian blonde as faithfully as possible: mission accomplished, if I were having this blind without knowing it comes from Connecticut, I would swear this is some or other tripel- or Duvel-like concoction from an established Belgian family brewery. It has all the right esters and phenols, the mouthfeel, the white sugar sweetness and the booziness of many a Belgian in this family, which includes things like Duvel, Hapkin, Judas or Delirium Tremens. Not my personal taste: I think I had one too many of this kind, but I do find it remarkable that a New England brewery is capable of making a beer so convincingly Belgian - once again proving that the American craft brewers are capable of mimicking nearly every traditional European beer style they want, apart from having succesfully developed their own interpretations (and hybrids) of them. Kudos for that, but otherwise this is not my preferred American craft beer by any means, I can have beers of exactly the same profile at home - and lots of them, anywhere...

Growler from the brewery. Hazy orange, large creamy off-white head, decent retention. Aroma of herbal, oniony hops, pale malt. The taste is pale malt, a bit of toast, stone fruit, melon, grapefruit. Medium bodied, high carbonation, well balanced.

Keg at the brewery. Clear golden, large creamy white head, good retention. Aroma of grapefruit, mint, dandelion, yeast. Taste is yeast, grapefruit, dandelion, plum, pale malt. Medium bodied, lingering bitterness.