Braxton Dark Charge

**Aroma:** “Fruity esters of pear or cherry with some dried fruit, creating a lighter, fruitier, surprisingly fresh aroma for a barrel-aged beer. Barrel aromas of bourbon, light vanilla, oak. Spices include cinnamon, holiday spices, clove, orange, juniper, and pine, with a hint of chile. Chocolate is present, along with some tobacco. Kind of hard to identify the base beer underneath.” **Flavor:** “The sweetness from the base beer helps to balance the spice characters of potpourri and cinnamon spice. The cherry and orange esters dominate, with some vanilla to smooth things out. Roasted barley and caramel, with some chocolate and Tootsie Rolls. There’s quite a bit of alcoholic and chile heat that detracts and helps to accentuate the phenolic and floral characters, putting them a bit over the top. The hops bitterness and roasted malt flavors add a drying finish to an otherwise sweet beer.” **Overall:** “For an in-your-face holiday beer, this is pretty good. The blend of spices and esters works but is subdued, and I really wanted more from the imperial and oak. It is subtle and tasty, even if it is light on the spicy notes. Nice chocolate and vanilla add fullness to the beer.”

Aroma: “Chocolate with a faint java note at first. It’s very restrained overall, then a nice nutty peanut-butter character as it warms and evolves into coffee with vanilla cream.” Flavor: “Rich chocolate and caramel sweetness. The coffee character is pretty subtle: it adds a bit to the roast character on the finish. Pretty sweet on balance, nice and creamy mouthfeel but a little heavy overall. Pleasant alcoholic warming on the swallow. Very nice fruity flavors.” Overall: “A bit on the sweet side with heavy chocolate. A touch more coffee could help balance it out. Moderate coffee spiciness throughout the sip with alcohol that balances and combines at the end to create a light bite.”

**Aroma:** “Cinnamon, cayenne, ashy roast, dark and milk chocolate, and yes, tobacco. The ash is a little unpleasant, but everything else works well together. Moderate mint, with cinnamon and light chile pepper. Deep richness, with notes of tobacco and leather. Chocolate, with a hint of mole spice, and some fruity notes of cherry, as well as chile powder, earth, and maybe a touch of Brett.” **Flavor:** “More chocolate that other Mexican chocolate stouts, with the cinnamon and cayenne being fairly subdued up front. The flavors grow the longer the beer sits on the palate. Chocolate mint, with cinnamon, vanilla, and just a hint of vanilla spice. A rich, creamy mouthfeel reminiscent of oats or lactose in the grain bill. The capsaicin and alcohol heat hits, then fades into the aftertaste, leaving a vague Thin Mints finish, along with more heat. A very balanced finish.” **Overall:** “Love the body of this beer, mainly because it is so chewy, but then it finishes dry and hot, making you want more. So much complexity, which is typical of the style, but it blends together better than most. It’s quite smooth for a beer with chile spice—nicely subdued, but still present enough to add an interesting background. It’s a nice mix of sweet, chocolate, spice, and roast.”