Siracusa Nera
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

12 oz. Bottle
Bottled On: 10/11/17

Poured into a tulip a pretty nice dark brown color, pretty nice carbonation, with a pretty nice thick/creamy one-finger tan head, which leaves a nice oil slick, and some nice sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with some nice chocolate/toffee notes, grapey/tart, hint of vanilla, slight coffee, dark fruit complex (grapes, cherries, figs, dates, plums). The taste is really nice, malty, nice touch of chocolate/toffee, some coffee, vanilla, tart, nice dark fruit complex (grapes, cherries, figs, dates, plums). Full Body, ABV hidden very well, a nice complex brew, a very nice sipper. Overall, a very tasty brew, would not know it was 10% ABV. Recommended!

*archived rating*

 

Poured into a Dogfish Head snifter, this jet black beer allows no light to pass. A thin, dark chestnut head is bubbly and quickly forms a thick ring. Spotty lace is left on the glass. When held to a bright light a dark ruby red halo is barely perceptible.

The aroma opens with dark chocolate and sweet, dark roasted malts. Boozy sourness is mild, while prunes and plums lead to fudge as it warms. There is a lot going on here.

The flavor is less impressive than the aroma, with baker's chocolate, charred malt, and black coffee, each in equal proportion. The finish is long, dominated by charred malt. It has a moderate booziness.

Powerful alcohol with modest heat attempts to cut the full body of this beer. The texture is similar to neoprene, and the carbonation is lively.

This is a decent beer to enjoy while relaxing or with casual conversation, however, it overpowers even an intense Gruaré cheese.

 

 

On tap at Dogfish Head Taproom and Kitchen in Milton, DE.

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like heavy duty roast, tobacco, smoke, leather, tannic wine, and oak.

This sounded pretty interesting, but it ultimately did not work for me. The wine additions didn’t add a ton of sweetness, which kind of seemed needed, as the base stout is super roasty and smoky. I think the wine added some leathery, bitter, and tobacco-like notes, with very little fruit characteristics. The oak aging only served to add more bitterness.

I also think the thinner body didn’t help with the more intense bitter characteristics of this – they might have been able to get away with these flavors if the body was creamier and thicker, a la Founders Imperial Stout, or something like that.

I like the idea behind this, and I like a lot of Dogfish Head beer still, but this one didn’t quite work for me.

 

 

 

Total Beverage has some of these and the bottle date is from 2018 lol. I really enjoyed this, the base stout is very solid to me on its own and then it's like this boozy soaked chocolate raisin.

 

very dark thin foam, very dark and almost black

fruity and boozy. slight oak, coffee and winey notes.

taste: coffee comes out through very much. subdues a lot of the more complex, tart notes.

mouthfeel: quite fizzy, heavy, and boozy.

overall: fine for a stout, i like the fruitiness but it gets overpowered very easily and the overall flavor is a few too many clashing flavors.

 

12 oz bottle, vintage 2017, poured into a snifter at 47 degrees F:
L - dark with a hazelnut head that lingered
S - raisins, grape must?
T - strange taste, a bit bitter, like tart molasses
F - medium mouthfeel with medium carbonation
O - This one may have aged a bit too long

Poured into a small chalice: color is solid black, head is light tan and presents 1/4 inch thick and dissipates quickly to a frothy top with lacing cling on the sides.

Smell is slight roasted malt blended with grape/cherry notes from the syrah must, not overly sweet aroma, hints of chocolate, unique blend of dryer/bitter RIS base with slight sweetness from syrah must.

Taste is similar with RIS and roasted malt upfront with slight chocolate and grape/cherry/raisin/berry mix flavors from the must; plums and chocolate covered cherry flavors seem to emerge with warmth, light, limited oaky vanilla notes.

Mouthfeel is low carbonation, moderate sweetness, light drying bitterness and alcohol.

Overall an excellent RIS variant - really like the vinous but light sweetness provided by the syrah must - seems to soften the potential booziness of an RIS while providing depth; oaky notes are limited but noticeable.

Solid Blackness, rich brown head, gets slimmer as we go.

In the nose: char, bourbon barrels, anise, molasses, deep dark chocolate.

In the mouth: Big sweetness, well tempered. So smooth, yet robust, big-boned, boisterous and bodacious. What's in this? "A Russian Imperial Stout with Syrah grape must added and aged in oak."
Well, there you go. Some vanilla, toast, coconut, and then the wine comes through. Mmmm, yes.
Full bodied, full flavored. I like it. It is good.