Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

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

Pretty unique and enjoyable. Taste is completely sweet malts, mainly plum taste. Wine and wood flavor in the background. A little too sweet. Very full bodied and heavy beer. Light taste of alcohol in the finish. Very creamy and almost no carbonation.

Pours black with a ruby veneer and a shiny brown head that quickly dissapates. Reeks of bubble gum and tastes of velvety malts, lacquered wood, alcohol, raisins, and lime. Deliciously strange.

Looks good in my glass.Smells fantastic. Multiple flavors from start to finish. Strong and flavorful. Great with Scandinavian stew (Selyanka) Very Good!

GBBF, Trade Day, 2008 Gravity cask. 3rd beer. My first three beers of GBBF 2008 were all very tasty, and with a few exceptions, were really the beers I enjoyed the most. This was rich and smooth with an awareness of alcohol, but not aggressive. A lovely beer.

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.