Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

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

Bottle. Pours a dark brown/black, very small tan head that lingered around the edges. Aroma is sweet malt, alcohol and a touch of coffee and chocolate. Flavor is sweet malt, coffee, wood, very faint touch of Bourbon and vanilla in the background. Very smooth for the abv.

12 oz bottle, poured into a snifter. Pours very dark brown/burgundy, with minimal head. Aroma of dark fruits (raisins and dates), very sweet malt, and smokey wood. Taste of vanilla, caramel, raisins and dates, brown sugar, and toasted wood. Very syrupy and smooth mouthfeel with minimal carbonation. Definitely a sipper, but very tasty.

Pours almost black with virtually no head to speak of. Sweet malty aroma with a pleasant vanilla undertone. Slightly thick, slightly oily, but not unpleasantly so. Lingering palate with a slight astringency. Malty sweet with a nutty character to it. Other notes that I had trouble separating out. Quite complex, hard to compare to anything else.

Bottle. Pours a deep dark black color with a minimal foamy head. Flavor is highly roasted, mildly bitter, sweet sugars, some earthy wood notes. Full bodied, sweet and sticky lingers on the palate. Interesting choice of wood to age this on, seemed to turn out well. Dogfish always up to something crazy.

Pours a a solid opaque brown with light tan colored head. Aroma is vanilla extract and brown sugar malts with notes of macadamia and hazelnut aromas. Aroma is an interesting balance of sweet and smokey. Flavor is rather bitter notes with vanilla, caramel undertones. A very earthy caramel flavor comes across. Body is creamy with fair carbonation.

Draught. Pours a dark brown blackish color with a small brown head. Nose of chocolate, woody, vanilla, nuts and caramel. Initial taste is toasted with caramel woodiness over the mouth. Mid palate displays some vanilla/wood with a smokey background. Finishing with above average palate duration. Flavor is good but looking for more. Body is light. The 12% is masked beautifully.

Location: 12 oz Bottle, purchased at Gilly’s Jan ’09

Aroma: Huge mix of flavors, scents, sweet, malty, woody
Appearance: Dark brown, thin head
Flavor: Almost as complex as the nose, toasted malts mix well with the sweetness and the woodiness
Palate: Relatively long lasting finish, full body
Overall Impression: Complex and interesting, really different then your average beer. Kind of drinks like a strong Porter, but really hard to compare to anything I can think of. Certainly something I would suggest to any adventurous beer drinker.

[Bottle] Pours very dark brown with a fairly short-lived brown head. Aroma is very nice with notes of semi-sweet chocolate, some vanilla, tapioca, and a touch of anise. Really enjoyable and close to a 10. The taste is not as good as the aroma, is still very nice. A fair amount of bitterness, but largely it is dominated by toasted malt and a little chocolate. Good mouthfeel, with a fairly long finish that seems to show more of the roasted malt character the longer it goes--almost a little ashy at times. Overall this is unique and more stoutlike in taste than most brown ales that I have had, but regardless is enjoyable and well crafted.