Paper City Batch 108

12oz bottle acquired in trade with ppoitras (thanks!). Poured a deeper and clear mahogany color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of chocolate, root beer soda, and some dark fruits. Tastes of roast, chocolate, and earthy. Body a tad on the thin side.

Bottle, from Julio’s. Ok aroma. Litely roasty sweet. Cardboard, woody, lite caramel and herbal. Clean reddish orange color, ok head that faded quickly, little to no lacing. Bitter flavor, cardboard, caramel, stale smoke and/or peaty. hint of grapefruit, maybe. Lite body, lite cream mouthfeel, bitter sweet , kind of burnt finish. Eh, it’s in the ballpark, but that stale smoke thing I got I didn’t like

2006 bottle from Julios consumed on 5/30/06.
Initially dark beige-grey head recedes to ring with some very light lacing. Maroon highlights throughout a caramel-mahogany body, with high clarity.
Brown malts are full of light melanoidins and minor roast. Chocolate and date notes provide some sweetness, while the hops are very well-integrated, with light herbal and nutty notes. Though coming together with the oily brown malts and very reserved roast, it produces a very "soily", damp earth-like note. Further breathing/warming allows the roastiness more room to maneuver, with light chocolate covered coffee bean dryness (semi-sweet chocolate) adding a hard edge on the very end.
The first thing that touches the palate is light roastiness, but it deepens in to a very light smokiness. Hops bitterness, with dried herb-notes and some bland nuttiness coast along the edge of the palate, carried on by a brisk, but fairly low carbonation. Hints of caramel sweetness dot the palate, but instead of growing more balanced, the roast provides too much astringency and the beer dries out heavily on the end. Soft herbal notes, nearly soapy, from the hops are on the finish as well, but don’t seem particularly suited to the roast and dry chocolate/crystal malts. No alcohol noted in aroma or flavor. Texture is somewhat loose, but only a slight wateriness. Soily, nutty.

12oz bottle. Pours a dark brown color with a frothy light tan head. Head receedes to a thin island film and a ring. Nose is earthy and dirt, some chocolate notes and some dates. Light hints of raisons and a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar. Palate is thin but smooth, with a dirtiness about the finish. Flavor is peaty with some light fruit notes and dirt. Light nut hints.

Julios Spring Beer Festival. Aroma of distant chocolate dust. Pour of clear ruddied amber brown. Vapid sweet beer, with next to no real flavor. Watery and weak. Not too offensive, but certainly not worth drinking. Palate of light sweet sugars on water. Smack of toast.