That is a pretty picture of an opaque red-tinted brown beverage with a nice little head. The head goes almost entirely away, but it leaves me with the tiniest of rings around the side of the glass. The aroma is brown liquor and heavy alcohol that has been aged in wood (which is pretty much what a brown liquor smells like).First sip is strong alcohol, caramel, toffee, and a kind of heavy grain bread. It's a bit overwhelming, but it gives me the sensation of something really unnecessarily potent. The alcohol is making things really difficult to work around. I've had alcohol-rich beers before, and they can only sometimes deal with it enough to be a good beverage in their own right.
Tip-in is sweet caramel, toffee, and even a hint of coffee. The middle is silently syrupy sweet with the caramel getting stronger and bread building on it as well. The finish is a subtle wave of brown liquor and a bit of bitterness with a trail off of wood and caramel.
Bottom Line: It gets MUCH better as it gets a little heat in it.
3.5/5
