Dogwood Excellent Adventure

Bottle. Pours a cloudy ruby color with a decent tan colored head. Aroma is sweet caramel malts, light cherry, nutty. Flavor is wet cardboard, light cherry notes, sweet caramel, maple, alcohol. Palate is full bodied, medium to mild carbonation, finished sweet. A little oxideized, but overall fairly good.

RBSG ’08. Sampled from an unlabeled bottle at the Pizza Port Grand Tasting. Clear amber color with no head and low carbonation. Lots of caramel notes in the aroma. Flavor is sweet with cherry and toffee tones. A bit of wet cardboard and oxidation in the finish. Didn’t find out how old this was. Hot finish and a bit stingy on the palate. Medium drinkability.

In short: A past due-date maderized extra-sweet and fruity beer of some kind.
How: Bottle 22oz. Vintage, age unkown, too old. Sample at Cathschlag birthday party tasting.
The look: Cloudy light-brown body with almost no head
In long: Nose of big caramel. Extra-thick syrupy body, tropical fruits in thick caramel. Alcohol bite. A little cardboard. No hops bite to speak of. I could feel that this beer once was something but this bottle had a maderization impression (with Sherry notes and all) that was rather annoying, almost sickening. Dogwood Forgettable Incident.

Bottle at RBSG. Pours amber with a beige head. Sugary malt nose. This has cellared very well, as this has a nice maple, caramel flavor with the right balance of sweetness and mellowed bitterness. Not too hot either.

Sweet. Mellowed hops, like it has been aged. Some caramel. In the line of Full Sail barleywine. A good combination of the hops and sweet malt with dark fruit.