Pours deep chocolate brown. Medium creamy coffe colored head. Slight lacing. Smells of coffee, flowery hops and carmelized malts. First sip, mild chocolate, leading into a bland middle with a finish reminiscent of the oak barrell stout. A touch of hops, choclate and coffee with a side of allchohol. The feeling is light and very watery, not much texture and the carbonation seems to overpower a bit. If the excellent finish was brought forward this could be a much better black and tan.

Draft at Dulles. This to me seemd like a watered down version of the stout; which I really enjoy. The Ale just did not add much and in fact detracted. Definitely have the stout over this.

On tap at the brewpub on 7/16/06: Pours a clear dark mahogany with a nicely-lacing off-white head. Aroma has a nice light toasty caramel sweetness with a touch of piny hoppiness. Body starts with a pleasant earthy sweet caramel maltiness, nicely-balanced with an earthy, mildly bitter hoppiness and toasty cookie dough flavor.

A deep red beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet malty with light notes of caramel. The flavor is sweet with notes of roasted malt, and oatmeal, leading to a dry roasted end.

Just an average black and tan, had this a few times both on tap and in bottles. Dark body, cream head. Smells of chocolate and coffe, taste is same, but rather non-descript. In many ways could be considered old-school with no dynamics.