Thursday, November 29, 2012

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

(creepy Santa)

American Brown Ale
12%


"An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means "holy tree," and its wood has been used in South American wine-making communities. "

I found this last bottle in my cellar a few weeks ago and decided I would review it. I'm not expecting much of a difference in terms of booziness.  When I had this fresh the last two times it was a solid beer but just overly boozy.  With time that will mellow out but that experiment will have to wait!

Pours a deep, dark brown out of the bottle and turns to black once in the glass.  Had a nice two finger head on it (poured aggressively) that disappeared quickly with no lacing.  Swirl of the glass leaves behind big alcohol legs that stick around on the walls of the glass.

Aroma of dark fruits just dunked into alcohol.  Raisins, figs, then alcohol and sweetness.  Slight woody character to it as well.  

Upon first sip I am hit with that dark fruit note mixed with chocolate and caramel.  On the back end is where the vanilla starts to show it's face in a subtle way.  This almost remind me of a belgian style quad with the amount of dark fruit I'm getting in this. Delicious

Carbonation is on point and the mouth feel is velvety smooth. Coats the mouth and lingers leaving behind trace amounts of flavor.  

I highly doubt that 6 months changed this beer that much.  Possibly my palate has changed a bit or my palate is just really on tonight but is excellent.  I plan to get more and let this sit for as long as I can.  This is already delicious and I think it will be something special with some age on it.

Cheers ladies and gentlemen!

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