On draught at the brewpub, 4/16/05. Very light golden-pale yellow almost green tinged. Not a caramel malt driven IPA. Foamy white head has some retention and light lacing. Aroma is dry, lightly perfumy, some honey and spicy, floral hops. Flavor has more floral hops, a strong sense of bitterness, with just a plain pale malt and honey flavored backbone. Can’t deny it’s well-made, but this one didnt do anything for me. Medium body, too much dryness, odd fruit-atop-crusty bread flavor.

On draught at the brewpub, 4/16/05. Dark black with some cola-brown tinges on the edge. Greyish-brown head recedes to cover rather quickly. Aroma of lightly burnt malt, hints of tobacco and anise. Cola, coffee, chocolate are all present in good measure here, though the intensity of the aroma could be a bit stronger. They serve the beer very cold here. Flavor starts with soft vanilla beans mixed with milk chocolate covered raisins, very easygoing, pleasant roastiness, not overly drying or bitter. Finishes with a good deal of coffee flavor, ilghtly oily, but again not too bitter as to bore the drinker. Good malt body, which is medium and just a slight touch of thinning as it warms. Low carbonation, fairly low fruitiness for the style, but as the bartender told me, it was kind of a dry stout/foreign stout hybrid (and the distinctions can get pretty blurry between the two styles). Very flavorful, I will reiterate, and I was very impressed to find this so well-made already.

On draught at the brewpub (well it’s really a nice restaurant with a small brewery), 4/16/05. Dark copper-auburn, medium amount of mostly dissipating off-white head, quite transluscent body, light lacing. Smells fuzzy and bitter, with light toasted malt, a bit of iron and caramel. Flavor begins dry, lightly woody/grainy with lots of toasted malt. Prickly, but not very bitter hops add good balance and as it warms and finishes there is a touch of creamy caramel. Very crystally (malt), quite carbonated, but oh so fresh tasting. Medium body with no water/thinning.