Water Street Imperial Brown

Downtown. Slightly hazy and caramel-orangish-brown in color with a dense, 3/4" foamy, sponge-like head that takes on a khaki orange hue. Aroma could take us either way - buttery pralines, caramel ribbons, sucked on and spit out toffee, and a hoppy registration that hits a sweet citric meringue accent on top of warped tree bark. Butterscotch and sweet corn sugar register for predominant flavors. Spritsy carbonation with mid-level c-hop annotations. It’s hard not to think of this as a diacetyl bomb. Butter pecan custard-like sweetness prevails in the finish, with corn starch and an aged, dilapidated hop quality. Worth a shot, but their doppelbock was just tapped, so you know where my time was better spent.

Pint at the downtown location. Hazy brown-amber body, medium dense foamy white head. Caramelized aroma - caramel malt over some roast with a hint of vanilla. Crisp grassy/stem hop bite over caramel toast and nut flavors. Piney bitterness in the finish - a suprisingly bitter/hoppy from these guys. Quite bitter but the dry caramel elemnts and the bitter hops (as opposed to aromatic/flavor ones) aren’t that appetizing. Some bonus points for an aggressive beer however.