Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

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

To me this is more like an imperial stout than a strong ale. It’s intense in pretty much every way a beer can be: color, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and alcohol. The only thing it’s not intense in is hops--not that it’s underhopped. The aroma is alcohol and fruit. Mouthfeel is thick and velvety. Flavor is sweet, woody, roasty with subtle bitterness and a sour finish. Intense and satisfying.

Pours an absolutely opaque dark brown with a fairly substantial stout-like brown head considering the ABV. High ABV beers tend to not foster much head, if any. Aroma is coffee, chocolate and merlot. Taste is a delicious blend of espreso coffee, dark chocolate, bittersweet roasted malt and red wine. Very busy, but well balanced and exceptionally good.

Oh my, my my my. This beer is so close to a stout its not even funny. Nose is heavy roast dark fruits baked character. Flavors of dark roasted malts, chocolate, strong coffee, and toffee. Very complex. Nice full fody. This is an amazing brew. Nice alc warming in the finish.

Bottle to Trappist Glass. Pours thick, almost like a stout. Smells of wood, dried fruits and some alcohol. The wood taste is obvious, along with coffee and chocolates. Great dessert beer.

Bottle. [Tasting @ Papsoe 20-10-2008] Large creamy beige to almost brown head that mostly diminished. Spare display of lacework. Pitch black color. Aroma of roasted malt, prunes, dates, mild floral, light sweet chocolate notes. Also wood and light vanilla like notes. Over the palate came alcohol, mild roasted malt, liquorish wood and again dried fruit. Quite full bodied with an average carbonation and thick texture. Moderated to heavy sweet with good counter bitterness. Lingering roasted malty and very dried fruity finish.

12 oz. bottle into goblet. Deep brown with burgundy edges. Short lived beige head. Flavor of rich wood and plums, chocolate and spice. Grows a bit sour at the of the bottle. Smoke, vanilla, alcohol and sweet malt in the nose. Alcohol does become more prominent as it warms, but the sweetness is nicely restrained. Great mouthfeel with just enough carbonation, creamy, silky smooth. I look forward to trying another bottle.

This pours like a stout, dark, brooding, and a nice dark cream head on top. The aroma is rich with vanilla, woody sweetness, roasted coffee, earthy peat and light chocolate. Flavor has a well balanced between creamy chocolate, rich roasted coffee and earthy smoothness. Palate is very clean, mellowed yet still with some crispness.

Bottle courtesy Nolankowal - thanks! Pours a deep brown with a thin tan head that gives glimpses of a reddish tint. Aroma is warm and inviting...there’s a heavy dose of alcohol, some yeast, roasted malt, black licorice, dark fruits, and I’m picking up a hint of smoke. Flavor is more muted than I would have expected, but it has a very nice lifecycle. Begins with a warming note, and is very malty, but then quickly has a period of burnt coffee, tobacco and some smoke, but then mellows out with lots of lactic, milk chocolate qualities, with a dose of vanilla in there as well. Heavily roasted throughout, the alcohol is not nearly as evident in the flavor as in the aroma, and this is a great sipping beer. Also a nice dose of some fruit at the end, that, well, I can’t quite put my finger on...maybe plum or raisin? Palate is nicely done...this one has all the makings of a thick, heavy beer, but the palate is surprisingly manageable. I came away from this beer very impressed...or should I say ’surprised’ at how much I enjoyed this one...