On tap at Growler & Gill, updated 2017 version lists ‘Belgian-style’ on amber ale label. Closer to a straight-up Belgian dark ale than its lighter pale style, its beet-sugared prune-raisin, apricot and banana sweetness contrasts lightly vinous red wining, whiskey-daubed medicinal hints and wispy acidic solvency. Dewy peat earthiness provides fertile base.
Delightful cream stout with Dark Street Roasting coffee and vanilla beans fortified by dark-roasted hop char. Sweet molasses-sapped milk chocolate center contrasts dried cocoa bittering just beneath hazelnut coffee continuance as moderate vanilla beaning thickens.
Unconvincingly enigmatic stout lets dry vanilla-beaned sarsaparilla root adjunct punctuate flashy initiation. But its creamily smooth black chocolate syruping, gooey anise uprising, delicate bourbon tingle and mild cola nuttiness never properly reinforce the stifled vanilla root beer entry and a slight compost waft seems out of place.
Brewed and bottled at Michigan’s Dark Horse, richly creamed stout aged in bourbon-barreled maple syrup proves to be another worthy Jesus descendant. Brown-sugared maple syrup usurps brown chocolate liqueur, fudged brownie, vanilla bean, coconut, marshmallow, blackberry and dark cherry sweetness over oak-charred smoked cedar . At the syrupy bourbon chocolate finish, lovely sherry-brandy wining, tingly anise spicing and raw molasses bittering increase complexity of robust dessert treat.
On tap at Growler & Gill, engagingly rich cookie dough yeast and pastry-like caramel malt sugaring anchor expressive floral-fruited bouquet. Bruised orange, nectarine, peach, pineapple, grapefruit, pear, brown apple and tangerine illusions illuminate “aromatic dank hops” and dewy pine respite. Well-disguised 8.5% ABV.
On tap at Ambulance, summery soft-toned witbier “brewed with lemon and orange peel” retains tangy dry-hopped citric appeal above subtle sugar spicing and biscuit-y wheat-honeyed oats spine. Zesty grapefruit-orange-pineapple rasp brings sweet ‘n sour nuances to deepen up-front citric peel bittering.
Brash 2015 version (11% ABV) rocks hard as smoky dark-roasted chocolate and coffee overtones receive massive hop-charred nuttiness and chewy molasses-sapped burnt caramel sweetness. Bold mocha theme picks up latent anise-spiced dried fruiting at dry black chocolate finish.
