Tiamat
Loowit Brewing Company

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a quarter finger brown head with great retention and nice solid lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, oak, dark dried fruit, a little cocoa; woody oak dominates. Flavor is dark toasted and dark biscuit malt, wood oak and dark dried fruit with contrasting lemony citrus notes and tobacco with woody chocolate developing into a boozy, somewhat astringent finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. The general profile is typical blended strong ale with notes of both imperial stout and barleywine. However a strong, astringent woody flavor is at the fore and one of the few cases where I can detect a raw tobacco flavor. Midway through the taste, a citrusy fruit character seems to develop, but it might just be a component of the general woodiness. A bit busy, but muddled overall flavor. The lightly chocolate, but still very woody finish redeems this for me. Kind of reminds me of a oaky stout that has been aged for a very long time with the resulting sharpening of the wood and blurry fruit and malt flavors. Interesting, but a bit too woody.

Poured from 500mL waxed bottle into a tulip. No date on bottle, but I believe this is a pretty new beer, so I'm reviewing it fresh although it is a beer that would probably age pretty well.

Appearance: rich, heavy dark brown that is black through the middle but brown around the edges. Head is a thick finger of frothy, compact tan foam. The appearance is quite good indeed.

Smell: there's whiskey, and bourbon, and booze, and barrels in the aroma. The question becomes -- is there any BEER in the aroma? Indeed, there is some maltiness with lots of toffee character, although it's a bit hard to separate from the caramel, vanilla, and boozy elements that the various barrels have added. It's a "strong" ale for sure.

Taste: vanilla. Oak. Toffee. Alcohol. Booze. Also alcohol. This is a sweet, bready, malty concoction, with a lot of alcohol heat and a lot of sugar, but I feel it's lacking a little bit in complexity. Not bad, but not necessarily a whole lot on offer here.

Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a moderate carbonation and creaminess. Honestly, I think more body would do this beer a lot of good. It's a bit thin given its sweetness and booziness.

Overall: an interesting beer, and it has a pretty good flavor. However, I feel like it does lack in complexity, and it could use some more body.