Old Town
Dog Island Brewing

473ml can - what the fuck is a 'dark lightness'? Gawd, some (ok, most) marketing people need to be culled from the herd.

This beer pours a clear (I think), dark orange-brick brown colour, with two chubby fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly beige head, which leaves absolutely nothing in the way of lace anywhere near the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, day-old coffee grounds, stale licorice root, and some plain earthy, musty, and dead floral hops. The taste is bready and doughy cereal malt, medium chocolate wafers, cafe-au-lait, anise spice, a mild earthy nuttiness, some damp minerality, and more understated leafy, herbal, and musky floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-supporting frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, with nothing really getting in the way of a so-so time at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the cocoa and coffee elements exhibiting the most lingering chutzpah.

Overall - this comes across as a pleasantly rendered offering, full of flavour, and with a nicely sublimated extra 2 points of the ol' wowee sauce, to boot. Worth checking out, once you appreciate the brewing prowess, as opposed to the necessary evil of having to sell things.