On tap at Plank Pizza, traditional English-styled mild dark ale stays soothingly smooth and softly crisp, retaining flattish nitro feel without getting arid. Dried cocoa entry picks up subtle rye-flaked pumpernickel breading, caraway seeded nuttiness, crisp tobacco roast and musty coffee oiling atop dewy peat-soiled Maris Otter malting.
Easy drinkin’ soft-toned English ale lets nutty chocolate truffle bustle shuffle its way across dewy earthen mildewing. In the backdrop, mild black coffee bittering slinks back next to caramel-burnt cola, walnut and chestnut undertones and light toasted hop bittering.
On tap at Ambulance, idiosyncratic lo-cal ‘English dark mild ale’ retains ashen toffee resilience above musty brown rice tea rusticity. Soft-watered mineral graining freshens earthen truffle finish.
Consistent dark-roasted full body offers assertive black-malted dark chocolate fudging, coffee-beaned cocoa bittering and tarry hop char to brown-sugared molasses oatmeal base. Mighty mocha insurgence picks up tertiary black cherry, blackberry and black licorice illusions over time.
Intriguing Belgian-styled dark ale (with robust 11% ABV) proves worthy as brewers’ 20th anniversary offering circa 2015. Ripe dried fruiting inundates coriander-spiced star anise sugaring and chewy caramel malting. Elevated raisin, plum, fig and prune conflux regales front end while less prominent blackberry, blueberry and red grape undertones as well as buttery coconut smidge add depth to richly complex dessert treat.
Interesting collaboration between Indiana and Colorado brewers. German-styled gratzer with smoked Polish dark ale roots brings oak-smoked wheat to the fore alongside bittersweet mocha nuttiness. Baker’s chocolate, cocoa powder and black coffee illusions get reinforced by sneaky peat smoked malts and latent wood-burnt char. Dry finish obtains milk-soured lactic acidity.
On tap at Copper Mine, strong Belgian dark ale counters musty cellar dewiness with candi-sugared sweetness as well as dried-fruited black grape, black cherry and red plum tartness. Subtle wheat-flaked molasses malts and roasted tobacco crisping underscore mid-range brown chocolate-spiced nicety.
Elegantly soft-toned dark ale brings dry-spiced crystal malt sugaring to caramel-burnt dried fruiting. Subtle plum-fig-date-pecan conflux gains momentum. Sharp earthen hop astringency rubs up against dewy cellared must.
On tap at Taphouse Grille, vague English dark mild ale’s initial smoky chocolate nuttiness quashed by musty dried-fruited murk, wood-polished turpentine fuming and wet-papered gypsum sulfate. Prune-stewed sugared fig, purple grape and date dot crystal malt restraint. Quite abstruse.
Veritable fruit-caked 2012 winter release named after famed British illustrator Ralph Steadman (whose artwork graces Flying Dog’s bottled beers) brings Belgian-styled candi-sugared dried fruiting to alcohol-burnt brandy, Cognac and Chardonnay warmth. Plum-wined frontage begets prune, fig, raisin, date and purple grape illusions above sinewy caramel malting. Tertairy brown pear, cherry coughdrop, strawberry and pineapple undertones find space.
Outstanding ‘English-styled dark mild ale’ not far removed from a creamier schwarzbier with its dry dark roasted chocolate entry, oily coffee roast and nutty eight-grain breading. But its implicit underlying complexities deepen the resolve past mere stylistic intrigue. Rampant dried fruit contingent, quirky molasses-sapped Belgian chocolate spicing, and enticing crystal-caramel malted toffee subsidy also reach the summit above rigid toasted hop bed.
A soft-tongued, dry-toned, bronze-bodied, English dark mild ale. Feisty-named Brawler Pugilist brings brown-sugared, raisin-greened, port-sauced plum-fig-apricot illusions to coffee-iced chocolate nibs duskiness, picking up ashen nuttiness as well as chamomile tea herbage along the way. It’s claim as a pugilist styled ale may be a bit overstated for such a calming moderation. Perhaps, it’s only supposed to be a welterweight boxer they’re trying to emulate.