Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Milton, Delaware USA

Wow. Poured black with a brown head. Aroma of bourbon, vanilla, and fruit. Some mellow bourbon flavor with a hitn of vanilla and finished with some smoke and fruit. Smooth. Can’t believe it’s 12%.

Poured a dark dark black color with great chocolate head. Aroma was dark fruits, chocolate some smokeyness to it. Flavor was much the same smoke came out more in the flavor. Amazing couldn’t taste alcohol very well balanced.

Nutty marzipan, vanilla and coconut figure prominently in the nose along with vinous dark pit fruits and dark malts. Opaque black body is topped by a low but long lasting tan-brown fine bubbled head that leaves some light lacing. Complex flavour marries intense sweetness with strong dark fruits, some dark malt character, fairly pronounced bitterness and vanilla and banana notes in the finish. Alcohol is notable mainly for its warming effect. Medium full body with moderate carbonation. Tulip glass. Cellar temperature. Bottle purchased at Brewery Creek in Mar-09.

Re-rate: Bottle, this beer is aging terribly. The funky wood notes have turned purfumey and dominate the pallate. As the alcohol burn has subsided with age so have all of the crisp tight flavors of fruit and sugar. It’s just a sluggy aroma bomb of a 12% brown now. Original: Bottle, the aroma of this beer just keeps getting stronger with age. The sour sweet wood fresh cut wood smell dominates the nose and just a hint of malty bread in the background. This beer pours a rich brown that turns amber at the corners and a fluffy small off white head leaves gorgeous lacing on the glass. The flavor is of cedar and sweet malts with a rush of simple syrup alcohol soak on the middle of the tongue. I get meatly fruits like papaya and banana peel and a bit of berry tart and sweetness. Blackberry mostly. This thing is just a monster of sweet funky wood and wild fruit with lots of alcohol. I am looking forward to watching this change as it ages more and more.

Pours a tan head that laces with a dark brown body. Smells of ripe fruit, anise, wood, and smoke. Flavor is the same. Finish is sticky and sweet.

I guess that this beer is a bit to clever for my palate. The aroma is very sweet smelling, the vanilla coming full force. I don’t pick up as many of the fruity notes that others point to. The beer is extremely smooth and malty like a scotch ale. The dominating flavors are roasted malt, the "palo santo" wood, vanilla, and fruits I cannot identify. The sip finishes with a warming alcohol, and is when the hops faintly emerge. The lingering flavor of the wood mixed with alcohol is slightly annoying. I cannot say that this is one of my favorite dogfish head beers. Worth trying, but at your own risk.

There must be lots of fruit in that Palo Santo wood because this is fruitier than a mofo. Got some kind of mixture of raspberry and strawberry to this. It TASTES a deep dark purple, on top of all the visual hints. (The look is of an imperial stout.) Goes down very bubbly and fruit-sweet.

Pours black with small dark tan head that quickly becomes a thin ring. Aroma is of sweet dark fruit, vanilla, smokey wood, and alcohol. Flavor is very complex, but mostly consistent with aroma, emphasizing the sweetness and wood. The lingering wood taste mixed with slightly bitter hops and alcohol warmth is interesting, but sad to say I’m not loving this one. I think it’s the wood, it really lingers.