Big thanks to BBB63 for bringing this tasty growler to Degarth’s Tampa tasting.

Pours dirty copper brown with tan head. The aroma is lively with medium roasted malts mixed with citrus, pine and pineapple hops and then some mild caramel candy. Smells great. The taste seems a bit thin to start. The flavor has initial bolts of crystal malts and pine hops. The pine hops grow in bitterness as the taste progresses along with some caramelized maltiness. The after taste leaves a sensation much like running your finger along the bottom of a nearly done sparging hop bag and then tasting it. Yum, I’ve done that a plenty.

22 oz hand bottle shared by tjthresh, courtesy of BBB63 - enjoyed at the csbosox tasting on 3/7/08. Pour is golden, with some ruby highlights - no head whatsoever. Aroma of green apples, very bright and fruity. Some heat behind that. Wood is present, though certainly in the backseat behind the apples. I am assuming this was Brandy barrel? Taste is a fair amount of heat, with sourish apple and almost a Trippel body and finish to it. This was OK, but I thought the barrel was pretty overwhelming. Thanks to both Mike and Tom!

22 oz hand bottle shared by tjthresh, courtesy of BBB63 - enjoyed at the csbosox tasting on 3/7/08. Pour is Ruby - caramel brown, no head really, what exists is just a few soapy bubbles around the edge. Aroma of grain, rye and some pine hoppiness. Floral notes, sweetness - really a great nose. Taste is big on the grainy rye, very bitter from middle to finish. The nose and taste both fade pretty fast, but this was a nice one. Huge thanks to both Mike and Tom!

2008 MBG Winter Beer Fest. I enjoyed the last couple of ounces from the mini-keg. This was a very leafy, herbal beer with toasty malts backing the heavy hops profile. Tannic . Much like fall leaves.

On tap at HopCat (Grand Rapids) and Brannigan Brothers (Lansing). Dried fall grass body, medium dense off-white head. Piney nose with light toasty malts. Piney body, sweet, with resiny citrus notes. Lingering bitter finish.

Draught samples at ABF on 6/16/07
A heller bock malt profile, with czech pils hopping and dry-hopping, it actually smelled somewhat on par with a czech pils, though the hopping rate is quite a good deal higher than a traditional pils, not surprisingly. Incredibly herbal, leafy, spicy hops are soaked in honey and sweet cookie dough-like malts, as an odd cotton candy and bubble gum-meets-pineapple note emerges. Wow, that’s certainly unique. Not very bock-like, with, perhaps, only a touch of yeast dryness on the finish. Sweet and spicy, with just tons of soft bubble gum and pineapple. It almost melds together to give off a note of maraschino cherries. Very high strength of aroma, and certainly very interesting, though I have no idea if this was intended. No alcohol, anyways, and it didnt seem overly sweet for what was there.
Soft, honeyish and bready malts comfort the palate, as some hop dryness begins to balance. A touch of passing earthiness follows, and quickly transitions in to a hugely fruity (cherry, pineapple, apple, pear) finish dotted with strong herbal hop notes. Very low carbonation, leading to a bit too much stickiness. Definitely would like to see more dryness and even more hop bitterness to balance this odd mix of malt and ester sweetness. Alcohol well-concealed. Very unique, that’s for sure. I suppose the barrel could be the culprit for creating all of these esters? Perhaps it sat warm at some point and the yeast went crazy? The only problem with that theory is that the beer isnt all that much attenuated. Hmmm, I dont know.
Deep golden with a fiery orange hue and a medium amount of off-white head that is fairly quick to recede to ring, leaving moderate lacing.

Draught samples at Boston’s ABF on 6/16/07
Large, fluffy white head tops a brassy-golden body, unfiltered, undoubtedly, and with a medium-high clarity and plentiful carbonation.
Bitter, leafy, hoppiness shows a large amount of citrus rind, initially, but a shot of sweet pale malts cuts through the strong acids and a more fruity (light tropical fruits, some pear and tangerine juice-like notes) aroma ensues. Very strong and rather in-your-face, but in a good way (for the most part). Some toasted malt acidity is noticed, creating a breadiness on the finish. With warming and breathing, light caramel notes work their way in. The barrel aging imparts a strong acidity on the finish and there is somewhat of a contest for dominance in the aroma between the juicy (yet dry) oakiness and the hop bitterness. No flaws, little alcohol apparency.
Bold, traditional C-hop flavors abound immediately, with strong orange and white grapefruit bitterness/dryness. Some pine sap and caramel malt mix through the middle, while the barrel creates more acidity/dryness. Pale and caramel malts are mostly well-attenuated, though there is definitely some stickiness left behind. I like the individual flavors (the oak, the citrus, the malts) but as a whole, it’s rather abrasive/fatiguing on the palate, by the end. Extremely dry, bittersweet finish, with barrel acidity and plentiful hop spiciness (a spicy/herbal character emerges quite strongly over time). Medium carbonation is very tight, giving it a creamy consistency, almost, and further pronouncing the malt sweetness/softness. Alcohol is minimally felt, no flaws.

Growler from BBB63 shared at DLD Hampton Inn tasting. Pours a medium amber witha thin off-white head. The aroma is alcohol, fruit, and flowery hops. Not malty enough and too hoppy to be a bock of any fashion in my book, which is what I expected. As it’s classified here as a ESL, I think that better desribes it.