Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Cask (gravity) @ Great British Beer Festival, GBBF 2008, Earls Court, London, England SW5.
Clear dark brown black color with a small, virtualle none head. Aroma is heavy malty, caramel, alcohol, dark fruity. Flavor is heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration. Body is medium to full, texture is oily - creamy and very smooth, carbonation is flat, finish feel is moderate alcoholic. (050808)

My Bottom Line:
The sweetness of licorice, hazelnuts and earthy figs is intelligently offset by amiable roastiness in this most creative and elegant sipper of a strong ale.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A film of foam floats atop the blackened dark brown.
-The prickly carbonation enlivens the heavy, nourishing body.
-Alcohol is not too present in the flavor profile, as is customary with DFH high gravity ales.
-A wooden dryness is felt in the finish.
-A link with the Imperial Stout family is hard to miss; I find this to be a compelling twist on this highly popular style.

Bottle.

Bought in Cracked Kettle, Amsterdam. Poured like crude oil with a nice small but brief tan head. Dark fruits, plum and raisins, roasted malts, wood in the aroma. The mouthfeel is complex and rich, the texture is oily and thick. Liqueric alcohol, the palo santo wood, roasted grains, some smoked flavor. Hevyweight champion beer...Insistent characteristic aftertaste... I would travel to this brewery if a can...

Thin dark brown head of fine bubbles. Kind of soapy around the edges. Rich malty aroma with some raisins, black cherry, roasted malts, caramel and some smokey wood. Color is a very dark brown with a tinge of red around the edges. Rich and roasty and bursting with flavor. Lots of roasted grains, more dark fruit and some earthy/herbal flavors. Strong alcohol presence that makes the gums tingle. Smooth and creamy palate with a bit of peaty stickyness. Finishes rich and roasty and delicious. This is a fantastic full bodied and full flavored brew that can stand with the best of them. One of the best from DFH in a long time.

Pours black very a minuscule soapy tan head. A lot in the odor, including sweet malt, caramel, some dark fruit. The taste starts off light, then ends with a building flavor of sweet malt and some oak flavor in the aftertaste that eventually fades into a distant hoppy bitterness. Interesting, complex beer.

On tap @ Toronado. Pours a black color with a small tan head. HUGE aroma, roasted malts, caramel, oaky, campfire. Very sweet and tasty, nutty, definitely malty. Can pick out the effects of barrel aging. Top notch.

Poured from the bottle into a snifter a dark, dark black with hints of brown. The head was beautiful with tan or brownish hints. The aroma was malty, slight wood or earth notes with some caramel and vanilla mixed in there. It is clear immediately that this would age in an awesome way. The taste is so full with dark fruits and a very unique wood like taste. It is both sweet at times and bitter - outstanding. On the palate the flavor keeps developing for quite a while. Just really nice.

12oz bottle pours a very nice pitch black with a thin tan head. Aroma is malty sweet, earthy, dark caramel, vanilla, dark fruit, raisins. Flavor is malty sweetness, dark caramel, oak/bourbon, dark fruit raisins alcohol. Medium/heavy mouth feel, long roasty, oaky, bitter finish. Very complex big brew, nice!