Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Cask, 12.0% at GBBF08. Black colour. Small light brown head. OK liquorice mouthfeel. Very peppery flavour. Quite high alcohol.

Wonderful sweet aroma full of raspberries and rich malt. Flavor is quite complex. Lots of fruit and sweetness, sort of like raspberry chocolate. Lots of wood in the flavor but it’s not oak, it’s a very interesting, very curious wood flavor. I don’t know... this one is about as easy to figure out as was Midas Touch. However, tremendously drinkable, despite 12%.

Poured from the bottle into a trappist glass, I immediately realized this beer was special. A subtle fruit aroma with some raisins and figs, and a bit of roasty coffee, chocolate, and vanilla malt scents, with a hearty wood effect. Very black in color with a thicker, syrupy pour and dense consistency. A very faint dark tan head that had minimal retention and hardly any cling. Superb flavor, featuring the darker fruity sweetness, but also the presence of the chocolate, coffee, a touch of vanilla and the wood effect. Full and dense mouthfeel, with alot of cling on the palate, slow going down with hardly any carbonation. Good for taking small sips, and the high alcohol content is wonderfully controlled. Definitely a top notch ale!

Murky opaque brown with minimal head. Nose- very fruity- plums, raisins, figs, vanillla. Taste- same fruits in the taste along with roasted coffee, sweet fruit cake malts, some chocolate and a little booze heat to tickle the nose. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Wood shows itself more in the finish helping to dry out this malt monster.

Very deep brown, almost black. Dense brown head. Aroma of vanillins, caramel, coffee, but no hops. Full mouthfeel with medium-low carbonation. Flavors of caramel, coffee, vanilla. Little or no hop flavor. Alcohoilic but not overpowering. Hop bitterness just balances the sweetness but the balance is definitely in favor of the malt. A heavy, malty after-dinner beer. Wonderful!

Bottle, courtesy Quintana. Very dark brown, almost black, with offwhite head. Wonderful earthy aromas of cigar smoke, tobacco, vanilla, and general roasted malt notes. Alcohol is entirely hidden in the nose. Flavors of dry dark roasted malt, with some vanilla sweetness and smoke in the background. Alcohol is surprisingly hidden at 12% and the thing is incredibly drinkable. Comes across much like an amped-up or sweetened-up dry stout. Very tasty, but I found it slightly lacking overall in depth of flavors and a tad thin on the palate.

On tap at brewpub. After several misses from DFH (zwaandele, golden rev) this one is right on. An amped up brown with great wood character, the malt and vanilla sweetness tempered with the dryness of the wood, the alcohol and hops. Rich and delicious, a great after dinner beer.

In the bottle from By the Bottle in Vancouver, WA.
Pours black. No light getting through whatsoever. Tight medium brown head. Aroma is sweet with a tootsie roll note as well as coffee and vanilla. As it opens up, you can definitely smell and taste the oak; sort of like a barleywine. Very sweet but almost medicinal. Hops are very present despite the strong malt backbone at 12%; though the alcohol is really kept in check. Thick mouthfeel and a medium-long finish. Surprisingly, it’s not the dark malts that are staying with me but the hops. Very interesting and very drinkable. I’m sure a couple months of aging wouldn’t hurt either.