The Dark Woods (2016)
Cigar City Brewing

 

 

Enjoyed at David's party

Light fizzy head, sight dark chestnut auburn colour

Nose sweet malt, toasted oak, molasses, raw brown sugar, brandy like aged malt, little oxidized

Taste big sweet malt but dry, super molasses, oxidized, copper metallic, tinny, weird, bitter

Mouth med bod but syrupy, decent carb little booze

Overall base beer may have been nice aside from the tinny taste and oxidation

 

 

 

 

Pours a hazy cloudy dark deep brown color. Completely opaque even when held to the light. Thin tan fizzy head dissipates leaving no lacing or residual head other than a very thin ring of foam along the outside of the beer.

Smell is incredibly interesting. The beer name is dark woods - and the aroma really reflects that. Very piney and woody up front with some roasted almost charred malt notes coming through. There is a bit of a musty/mossy maybe peaty aroma present throughout.

Taste follows the nose with lots of pine and maple wood up front. The pine is strong, musty and lingering. Nutty roasted malts come through after that initial pine and citrus punch. Malts give way to a chocolate and citrus zest finish. Not much bitterness on the finish - more like a lingering pine flavor. The flavors in this beer are very unique for the style and frankly, taken together, a rather substantial departure from a classic brown ale. The base may be a brown ale, but this is so much more than a simple brown ale.

Feel is very light, thin, drinkable. Mild carbonation. Very dry finish coats the mouth.

Overall this is a super interesting beer. Definitely a unique take on the brown ale - one that is not very reminiscent of the classic brown ale. That being said, dark woods is an apt name for this beer - the flavors are woodsy, piney and musty - all things I associate with dark woods. Its well worth trying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a beautiful earthy imperial brown ale aged on two woods, padauk and maple. i know basically nothing of padauk wood, except it is commonly used to make guitar necks? not sure what that means for the flavor, but i like the idea of double wood ageing, and of introducing some new wood into the flavor mix here, i wish we saw more of that in craft beer. this was one of the more memorable beers from a great florida vacation, pricey bottle, but worth it! not amazing looking on the pour, murky dense not super heady beer after a second, somewhere between brown and black, some sediment. aroma is amazing, there has to be more going on here than just brown ale as a base, i get heavy dry dark chocolate, deeper roast that i ever get in a brown (of any persuasion), a vanilla and honey creaminess, subtle woody rooty spice, char. one of the things that makes this special before i even taste it, is that its not aged in a bourbon barrel. so often those flavors take over beer, even big stouts, so using a brown ale base and then different woods without the bourbon is a great idea, and yields an uncommon and interesting beer. the maple is a softer wood than oak in terms of flavor, possibly more porous, which allows a woody sweet flavor without some of the heavier elements that oak lends. the other wood might account for some of the spiciness here, but its tough to tell. they work together well enough, and with the complex malt bill on this, its like nothing else out there. some residual sugar and booze finish it off, but both are welcome this time. impressive offering from cigar city, one of their very best i have had! i hope to see this weird wood integration continue...

Reviewed from notes. Poured from a 22 oz. bottle into an El Catador Barrel-Aged glass.

A: Pours a hazy to murky dark brown, with a thin tan head that fades quickly and low visible carbonation.

S: Citrus and resinous hops, sweet toasted malts, and a bready sweetness. Modest woody dryness – I don't know what the hell Padauk wood is or what it smells like, but it's likely from that. A little dry, spicy or black peppery.

T: Lightly toasted sweet malts, citrus hops, and the spicy woody dryness. Light vanilla, then resinous hops, and toffee malt sweetness with notes of chocolate. Molasses, more tannin dryness, and then ultimately finishes with a lingering hop bitterness.

M: A medium to slightly heavy for the listed American Brown Ale. Average alcohol presence, and a good amount of carbonation sensation.

O: Nothing offensive, and I'd say I enjoyed it a good bit more than last year’s iteration. I'm not sure what the Padauk wood adds, or what it is supposed to taste like. Decent, but nothing worth a repeat performance.

 

 

A-Bomber purchased at the tap room over New Years poured into a CC snifter. A thin layer of light tan head atop a murky light brown brew.
S-woody and brown is what I think of when I sniff this brew. Some booze
T-woody, toffee malts. Big wood dominates.
M-very dry finish with a little alcohol vapor. Medium bodied and lightly carbonated.
O-pretty non descript. Lots of wood and hints of alcohol but this is a drinkable wood aged brew. I like it but it is not overly anything.