Palo Santo Marron - Dogfish Head

Palo Santo Marron
Brown Ale
Dogfish Head
Milton, DE

I don't live far from DE so fortunately for me, I have an opportunity to try out a lot, if not all, of Dogfish Head. Dogfish Head is the reason I started actually tasting beer, not just drinking to get crazy. It still makes me crazy sometimes, and at 12% ABV, Palo Santo Marron gets me feeling warm after the first few sips.

Palo Santo (Spanish for "holy wood") is a type of wood that according to the tale on the bottle, comes from Paraguay. It is one of the hardest woods available on the planet. Outside of brewing in Milton, its also used for cricket bails, police clubs, mortar and pestles and even as an insulator for wiring in the San Francisco Street car system (Thanks wikipedia!). It also is a fragrant wood which adds to the complex flavor of this ale.

I credit my understanding of what I'd call "Malt Beverages" to my college experience. They were what you got when you were partying econo - cheap, big, high in alcohol, and awful to taste. The classification of a "Malt Beverage" is really just an indication of high alcohol content usually created by adding an ingredient to the brewing process to boost ABV. As I'm sure you can imagine, Dogfish Head did not create their own 40 guzzler with this.

I should probably talk about the taste, but I'm finding that describing beer flavors can be boring. It is more similar to the Scotch Ale I had recently than it is to a lager, so I don't want to sound too redundant. It comes in strong, and like the bottle says there is definitely vanilla and caramel going on. It leaves a little tart and a little smokey and maybe even salty, like a good Port wine. If you drink it too fast, besides having a lot of fun, you might also get a sticky ring around your mouth.

Dogfish Head wants you to know about this beer, and in order to do so, they posted a really incredible series of youtube video's where they describe it a lot better than I ever could (though I was still set on trying!) Find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWNo2oKNmTU


--Joe