Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

I am really surprised, this stuff is awesome. After hearing some hype about this, I decided to give it a try, not knowing exactly what I was getting into. This beer lives up to the hype and goes beyond! This beer is wickedly close to perfection. So complex, with dark fruit, whiskey, wood, maple, and brown sugar aromas and flavors. Thick and syrupy, with near-perfect carbonation. Finishes boozey, as one would expect from 12%. Overall, excellent/world-class. Bravo.

Bottle. Very dark chestnut brown color, dark brown head that quickly dissipates. Aroma of raw sugarcane, licorice, cocoa, leather, wood. Creamy mouthfeel. Sweet taste with some lactose notes, wood, dark spicy fruits, tamarind. Very little alcohol detectable.

Whoa!! The Heart of woodsy, those who venture in never to be seen again darkness. Bury your nose in this and just enjoy the moment. Go easy with this guy. Dark chocolate, black licorice (but a mellow version), supple wood, with subtle alcohol towards the end. Rich luxurious palate and finish. 12 oz. bottle. 2008.

Pour is a very dark reddish brown with creamy tan head. Dark chocolate, roasted malt, raisin, plum, vanilla, caramel, leather, oak, and some bitterness. to sum it up.. bitter dark chocolate, dark fruit, and sweet caramel. The body is thick and chewy, with some alcohol coming through.

8/22/2008: Well, I’ve read the information about this beer and the Palo Santo wood so now it’s time to see if this lives up to the hype... Wow, Dogfish Head Palto Santo Marron looks super thick on the pour and is dark reddish brown (looks like the color of liquid dark chocolate). No head or crown forms on the surface during or afte the pour. The aroma is strong and fairly complex. It is moderately sweet and has notes of deeply caramelized malt, chocolate, vanilla (egg-style), smoke/char, and so waming alcohol. The flavor is strong and intesnse as well. Lots of extremely caramelized malt is punctuated by high cacao content chocolate with custard flair and a dry edge to it. The beer is nicely balanced between a moderately sweet maltiness and a dry, more bitter finish. It reminds me of eating 60%-80% cacao chocolate as the sweet-bitter plays out on the palate with some additional twists thrown in. This beer is strong, but the alcohol actually works well with the deep flavors. As suspected, this beer is very thick, mildly sticky, mellow, and a joy on the palate. This is a great sipping beer and well-worth the price. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s just say that it’s quite good, but hards hard to really tell to what extent the Palo Santo really left its mark on this beer without having a reference sample of the same base beer not put into these wooden tanks...

12 fl. oz. bottle (12% alc. by vol.) for $3.79+tax from the Root Cellar in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rating #524 for this beer...

pours dark brown almost black wih a thin lace for a head. smells almost of chocolate, toasted malt, and alcohol. has some chareceristics that one could attribute to a barley wine, yet this beer seems to steal suttle flavors from multiple styles. I taste toasted malt, fruit, and alcohol. All in all the beer is rather sweet with a pleasant lingering aftertaste of what to me seems to be raisin and alcohol.

The Dan Journal #227. Tasted 8/11/08. 12oz bottle dated May 28/08. Pitch black with a ten head. Cocoa aromas with notes of leather and caramel. Full bodied with a defined vanilla/oaky, woody character. Sweet and sticky malts. Mild hop presence. Toasty with a solid alcohol note. Good woody note. Solid!

Different from memory, seemed much like a proter or an imperial stout, dark brown, thick with dark creamy head, dark sweetness as in carmel and hints of vanilla and fruit, different, nice, better for the colder seasons. High alcohol but smmooth and not in taste.