Scary Joy
Skookum Brewery

 

 

Pitch brown viscous opaque brown in appearance, with a light brown cap. Bourbon coconut with an emphasis on boozy molasses, brown sugar and vanilla for the nose. Taste is more monotone with booze and barrel starring, caramel, coconut and molasses are strong too in a second wave. Thinner body, warm verging on hot, burns a bit, decently smooth though with strong coconut boozy bite to be the lasting impression. A little refinement would take this to the next level, but as is it is a fun dessert brown

 

 

First, big bourbony oak and vanilla against a backdrop of barleywine-like toffee and caramel. Then, without warning, intense coconut builds, eventually fading into an oaky finish. Sweet toffee lingers long after the sip. A very thoughtful use of barrel and coconut

Pours a typical brown ale color, but in the glass, it seems more like a dark barleywine. As it warms, vanilla exploded. At first, it's the oaky vanillin from from the barrel, but the true vanilla lingers at the end. Drink this at 50-degrees!

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque black in the glass with a patchy brown head that dissipates to spots with a slight ring around the glass. Aroma of mild dark toasted malt, light vanilla and almonds. Flavor is semi-sweet, lightly toasted malt, a little molasses, coconut, almond and vanilla. Medium bodied with somewhat light carbonation. A great imperial brown ale with a good balance of the ingredients it's conditioned on: coconut, almonds and vanilla; all clear notes, but nothing really dominates. Starts lightly sweet, but is not a sweet ale, although the coconut and almond give that impression. ABV well covered. It does have some Almond Joy character which is a pleasure. A bit undercarbonated, but enjoyable.