New Holland Charkoota Rye

22 oz’er. Dark! Midnight red, with a thin head that hangs on only as a thin halo of foam. The aroma is quite smoky -- like a sweet smoked sausage. Drinks with that same odd sweet/smoke teeter-totter; this would definitely go well with a nice cheese plate, either with smoked cheese or a nice dark cheddar. This beer SCREAMS midwestern comfort food! (#3728, 11/1/2009)

Sample at Blacklick Wine & Spirits. Brown pour with a medium tan head. Aroma of leather, manure, smoke and pork. Candyish flavor quickly followed by manure, leather and smoked meat. A god awful abomination. First time I’ve not been able to finish a 3-4oz sample.

Draft at the Bad Apple. Pours a dark brown with red around the edges. Nose is peaty and phenolic with hardwood smoke peaking through. Taste is pretty nice and rich. Sweet, hamlike and a touch salty. Again, a bit phenolic and then roasty. Somewhat scotch like. Pretty nice and interesting beer.

22oz. Bottle: Aroma of smoke, bamburg wood, smoked meat, slight chocolate malts, light rye, slight peat, a hint of vanilla, and a tiny hint of molasses. Poured very deep amber/brown/ruby in color with a very small, tan head that disappeared quickly. Clear. Slightly sparkling. Flavor is complex, lightly sweet, and lightly bitter. Tastes of chocolate malt, rye, light malts, smoke, slight caramel, and bamburg wood. Medium to full body. Smooth, dry texture. Soft to average carbonation. Chocolate, malt, slight caramel, and smoke finish is dry. No hint of the 7.75%ABV.

Draft at The Bad Apple in Chicago: Another fantastically fresh draft offering. Lots of great campfire smokiness and wood in the nose. The body expands on this, with a great balance of chocolate, smoke and cherry. Sweet and flavorful, but also drinkable do to the lagering. A great beer.

Bomber. Pours a dark brown that shines nice and red when held up to light. Two fingers of dense foam sits on top and aromas are... well... odd. Bacon and smoke are there for sure as is a bit of saltiness and cherry wood. The bacon smell is more like bacon before it is cooked however, so it’s not great for a beer... it also smells a little salty. Sure enough, it’s there in the flavor pretty thick, too. We bought a slab of homemade bacon last year and this is exactly what the smell/taste is like. Not like that fake stuff in the store. I guess that this might do it for some people, but I like my bacon on my plate and my beer in the glass... mixing those two worlds just seems wrong... just wrong. In addition to this ugly mashup of breakfast and beverage, there are a couple of other flavors I could live without... a bit of a fake smoke presence and (ugh) a somewhat nasty preservative (reminds me of borax or something along those lines) taste. I can pick up the rye and maybe some chickory a little more as it warms, but man... this is kind of a mess.

Poured like a stout with a nice small tan head.The nose was roasty, smokey, chocolate,and sweet.Flavor was quite different in a good way.Flavors of smoked meat, espresso, molasses, and fruit.It was blended well.This finished off dry and slightly smokey.

Draft at South Park Tavern in Dayton, OH. Smokin! Big flavors of smoked malt dominate this unique style of beer. The rye adds some sjpice and there is some nice hop dryness to the finish. The pour is dark amber and the aroma is dominated by smoke. Very unique and different.