Storyboard
Siren Craft Brew

one of the most interesting and delicious beers i had on my entire trip to europe, certainly unexpected for a brown ale, but this really is something special, a slightly hoppy american brown aged with cedar, really neat introduction of this complex wood into a very well constructed base brown ale, a little deeper than many, especially in this part of the world, dark brown in color, still light looking in body, and soapy headed with nice lace in my glass, a really joy to be able to drink this directly at the source! the aroma is where this truly deviates from other brown ales, the cedar is immediately obvious, so aromatic here, but it does not dominate, the richer deeper nature of the malt in here now makes perfect sense, bitter dark chocolate and coffee notes against the sweet almost floral wood, hints of cigar box, old mans hat, and new fencing are there. the ferment seems neutral to me. the flavor is amazing, the wood flashes in and out, kind of striking up front, then receding to the back while malted chocolate, raisin, and even licorice character comes forward, then the cedar again at the end, mellowing and enriching at the same time, it does something way different than oak, even in texture, and i love it. some nice dried fruit character as this warms, never too much of the cedar, just a medium body on it, and relatively dry overall for what it is. delicious beer, changes a lot as it warms, something i could have sat and drank all day, awesome recipe and execution, the best brown ale ive had in as long as i can remember!

This is a very very brown brown ale, by which is to say it's dark. Damn dark. Pushing into porter territory dark. The head is pretty tight, camel-coloured and reasonably long-lasting considering my glass isn't very clean (my bad). It smells malty/worty, like unfermented maltose, like semi-dried puddles on a taproom floor. It isn't very nice, to be honest, and in fact it has that kind of sugary smell that makes me think it'll give me a hangover. I'm not getting much cedar, which is the whole reason I bought this beer. It mainly smells like toasted marshmallows, sponge pudding and old pubs. There is something smoky-chocolatey in the background that does have a certain allure, and to be fair, this is probably a bit too cold. As it warms and breathes it is starting to smell a bit better. A certain pepperiness – there's the cedar – begins to poke through, as well.

The flavour overall is dank and dry, not what I expected from the nose at all. It still doesn't taste like cedar, but there is a slightly tannic woodiness to it – do they still make Palo Santo Marron? It's a bit like that, earthy, slightly smoky, quite nutty, very rich. Something about it – a light spice – brings to mind cola. There are some good dark sugar flavours here – burnt caramel, fudge, dates, maple – but it isn't actually a sugary beer, which is nice. The aftertaste is full of drying tannins, tea-like and leafy.

It's good – balanced, drinkable, just about on the right side of heavy. But there's something missing, something aromatic (probably the cedar) that makes the beer feel hollow. A bit more spicy, floral, resinous character would lift the whole thing. Not bad but not one I'll rush to try again.