PDubyah: Beer - #281 - Dogfish Head

Friday, January 10, 2014

Beer - #281 - Dogfish Head - Palo Santo Marron

I wasn't going to have a beer today, but events conspired and I feel the need for solace.

This then the unusually named - Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron - Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery in the style of an American Strong Ale and they are in Milton, Delaware USA

A 300ml bottle of a 12% ABV beer, which weighs in at 360 calories per serving, making this 3.35 standard drinks

Big Brown Ale aged on palo santo wood from Paraguay. This beer is a 12% abv, highly roasty, and malty brown ale aged on the wood of the Palo Santo tree from Paraguay. Palo Santo means "holy tree" and it's wood has been used in South American wine-making communities. We were lucky enough to get our hands on 20 blocks of the super-dense wood and the wood was added to the ageing tank after fermentation.

A big nose of chocolate on opening, and rich fruits, pours thick dark dark brown, with a small and fading head that leaves to a thin film of brown. The aroma doesn't seem to stay, but moves to more a milk chocolate note.

That's a really big mouthfeel of beer. Rich and full and rich and full and long and rich. This tastes amazingly thick. There is a bunch of tongue tip bitterness that moves to the end as you drink this, the delivery of the darker sweeter notes taking the centre quite easily.

You can get a sense of the alcohol content in this, you'd be strange if you couldn't.

Truly then this is a beer that I'm enjoying, it's got a lot of the good things about it, a cracking mouthfeel, intense chocolate and rain notes, but it lacks the head and lacing. The bitterness is an adjunct to the overall flavour, and is at the acceptable level for me.

I can tell already that I shouldn't have started with this, as it is a big beer in many ways.

The pdubyah-o-meter says that this is a 9 and great! on the scale of things. I can't see this being to everyone's taste, there is a fair crack of the alcohol astringent with this as it warms up a bit. but I really love the fullness of the way this tastes, the dark roast fruity chocolate notes and the wash of bitterness. Gosh.

Get in!

AMERICAN STRONG ALE

Not a style, per se, but the only logical category to incorporate the plethora of strong, stylistically vague beers coming from American micros these days. Some are related to English Strong Ales, but with more hop, while others are ultra-strong variants on the IPA theme. But no matter how varied their origins or characters might be, all are intense, potent, with generous quantities of hops and malt