How to be Unforgettable: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Name: Palo Santo Marron

Brewer: Dogfish Head (Delaware, US)

Type: Brown Ale

ABV: 12%

Label: 3

Look-Cs: 17

Snout: 15

Texture: 17

Flavor: 28

X-Factor: 10

TOTAL: 90

Rememberer of Things Baked

If this stout  brown ale were a cookie, it would be the most famous cookie in Western literature: the Madeleine. 

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“Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.”

-Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

Known as the “forgotten heart” of South America, Paraguay is landlocked between Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil, and offers little in terms of typical tourist attractions. Deep in the forests of this oft-overlooked destination grows Bulnesia sarmientoi, the tree that produces Palo Santo, or “holy wood” – one of the toughest woods in the world.

Tough wood

Palo Santo caught the attention of John Gasparine, a Baltimore-based businessman interested in sustainably harvested wood. According to a New Yorker piece, the wood “was so heavy that it sank in water, so hard and oily that it was sometimes made into ball bearings or self-lubricating bushings. It smelled as sweet as sandalwood and was said to impart its fragrance to food and drink. The South Americans used it for salad bowls, serving utensils, maté goblets, and, in at least one case, wine barrels.”


Gasparine contacted Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione to suggest he consider aging a beer in this aromatic superwood. Within a year, Calagione sent Gasparine back to Paraguay to "get a shitload" of Palo Santo. 

Gasparine assembled a crew of rugged Paraguayan millworkers with the toughness to match the wood, and after a twelve-hour bus ride and half day drive into the forest, the group arrived upon some palo santo trees. One of the millworkers offered to cut away a swath of the tree for a smell test to confirm that it was indeed Palo Santo:

"Then he starts hacking away for five or ten minutes. Nothing. Can’t get through the sapwood. So the monster Carlos goes at it. The blade looks like a butter knife in his hand. Nothing.” After a while, Carlos turned to one of his sidekicks and sent him back to the truck. When he returned, he was holding a .38-calibre pistol. “Now I’m a little more than freaked out,” Gasparine says. Carlos took the pistol, swivelled it toward the tree, and fired a single shot from five feet away. The bullet struck with a dull thud, then fell harmlessly to the ground.”

The Palo Santo was sent from Paraguay to another unfairly dismissed spot on the map: Delaware. Dogfish Head started its beginnings in Rehoboth Beach as the first brewpub in the state. After signing the lease for the space on the boardwalk, Calagione shortly discovered that bars and restaurants in Delaware were not allowed to brew their own beer. He lobbied the state congress to change the rules, and soon after, Dogfish Head was up and running.

Upon receiving the wood, Calagione was faced with a new challenge: the Palo Santo was so aromatic and strong that he needed a beer flavorful enough to not be overpowered by the wood.

He chose a strong brown ale composed of three kinds of hops, five kinds of wheat and barley, some unrefined cane sugar, and a yeast for a Scottish ale. The Palo Santo barrels hold around 10,000 gallons of wonderful – the largest barrels around since pre-Prohibition times. This ultimately produces a creamy, complex and aromatic brew drawing a strong resemblance to an imperial stout.

Palo Santo Marron pours black with a reddish hue when held up to the light. The head is a sandy, tanned color with a decent lacing. The mouthfeel is nice and creamy, almost viscous like some of the best imperial stouts.

Ultimately, what’s most compelling on this beer is the unforgettable snout.

I haven’t yet been so lucky to run my sniffer along a nice cut of Palo Santo wood, but it’s fair to guess that this wonderwood is mostly to thank for the snout on the beer. Wood, tobacco, chocolate, alcohol, chilies, brown sugar—it all sneaks its way in and evolves in a single inhale, as well as when the beer warms up.

Famous cookie

Perhaps this is why when people mention their weekend trip to Rehoboth, or I spot a Dogfish label in the beer store, my heart pitter-patters a bit stronger than it would for equally desirable beers, say, an Old Rasputin. When I crack a bottle open, and stick my nose into the glass, I’m immediately transported to some of my favorite moments shared with this beer—the leisurely summer of 2011 filled with old friends, new adventures, and a hyper-awareness that the nature of what was fun and fulfilling for me was beginning to change.

A “Proustian memory” is characterized by this precise feeling—an encounter with a scent brings back a flood of, often distant, but always striking and specific memories. Marcel Proust, in Remembrance of Things Past writes of eating a Madeleine cookie dipped in lime-blossom tea, and being transported back to another time in his life:

…and as soon as I had recognized the taste of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me ... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set ... and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I used to be sent before lunch, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine.

Indeed, smell is the sense most closely tied to memory, and physiologically offers up the greatest advantage for recalling complexity—smell receptors can be 3,400 times more sensitive than taste receptors.

Perhaps what separates joy in adulthood from childhood joy is the concept of seeking coherence over seeking novelty. Adults become interested in the naming and classifying of things, while the young get a rush from looking for what is new and exciting. The Palo Santo Marron happily straddles these two worlds—it’s solid, balanced and complex while being bold, uncategorizable and arguably irreverent. It is birthed from locales that are considered forgettable, boring, matured—but staunchly break this mold. Much like the wood, it is both tough and seductive. It is the aromatic palo santo barrels that allow this beer to accomplish so much, while being boldly contradictory, and ultimately, unforgettable. 

Wets v. Drys: "Prohibition" by Ken Burns

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's latest documentary "Prohibition" will premiere on October 2.  Prohibition and its after effects changed the beer industry in the United States, and the craft microbreweries continue to suffer from the lingering influence of that period.

The three part documentary touches on feminism, jazz, freedom, and the concept of a single fix solution for all of society's social ills. 

As Burns says:

... this [film] shouted out its relevance to us... this is about single issue political campaigns, wedge issues that metastasize with horrible, unintended consequences, it's the demonization of immigrants, it's a whole group of people who feel they've lost control of their country and want to take it back, and are absolutely sure without any compromise how things should be.

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.

Old Rasputin Imperial Stout

Name: Old Rasputin Imperial Stout

Brewer: North Coast Brewing Co. (California, US)

Type: Russian Imperial Stout

ABV: 9%

Label: 4

Look-Cs: 18 

Snout: 13

Texture: 18

Flavor: 28

X-Factor: 9

TOTAL: 90

If this beer were a doomed institution, it would be marriage.

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An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit. 

 ~Pliny the Younger, Letters

After six months of chasing elusive dark beer around South America, it was time to come home and settle down for a short spell. Within the first three days back in a snow-covered Washington, DC, I realized the chase was over.

Friends in all the right places.

My new apartment was steps from a beer bar with 3-4 stouts on draft at all times, and a beer store with a refreshingly current rotation of beers was an even closer stumble. While I was away, the homebrew scene continued to take hold and several friends were brewing their own beers, and more than happy to share in their craft. I was inundated with guaranteed creamy deliciousness. Much like online dating, I could wrap my lips around a different gorgeous brew each night of the week, if I so desired.

The challenge had vanished.

I was no longer hiking 10 miles with double the weight on my back so I could chill a 6 pack of local beers in a Patagonian mountain stream, darting around a rainy white-washed city searching for a brewery on a grid of unnamed streets, or dodging Peugeots on a bike sweating my way up twisting lakeside hills with the promise of a rare brewery around the next bend. I was worried that the romance might be dead. My wild oats were sowed, malted, gulped down, and I found myself staring at the bottom of a lacy empty pint debating my next move.

He's not getting any younger.

At the same time, my friends were beginning to “get serious.”  They were getting married, having kids, buying homes, and generally embracing a more settled lifestyle. I was worried that my beer-drinkin would run a parallel course, and I might be subject to the easy contentment of grocery store Guinness for the rest of my existence.

Then, one conversation with an old friend changed everything. As we mused about monogamy and commitment late into the night, he spoke of his long-term boyfriend, saying “he just feels like home to me.” As he opened up about the man I long suspected to be the love of his life, I felt a familiar warm feeling. It was big, bold, and hauntingly complex. Almost scary in its richness. Overwhelming in its intensity yet oddly calming. I tasted Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. It was heavenly. I was home.

I reflected on the time I spent with my Old Rasputin since my return, and realized that it was the only beer I kept coming back to. When it was on draft, there was no other stout I desired more. Sure, I was always looking to branch out and try something new, but when it was around, I always ended my night with an Old Rasputin. If Guinness was my gateway beer into stouts, Old Rasputin is my drug of choice.

While no label could do justice or give fair warning to what the imbiber was about to experience, the badass sketching of Rasputin and bold Russian phrases hint at the power in the stout little bottle. The snout is burnt malt and alcohol with coffee and chocolate becoming more apparent as the beer warms up.

Old Rasputin is just as beautiful as it is substantive, with an oily black pour and a frothy tan head that leaves minimal lacing.

The flavors are nicely balanced and highlighted as the temperature slowly changes. There are strong dark chocolate and coffee notes with a generally bitter finish punctuated by recognition of the alcohol. Not too sweet for an imperial stout.

The silky, oily texture of this beer is absolutely magnificent. While the flavors are bold it is wondrously smooth and creamy.

Dark, bold, dangerous, with the propensity to evolve over time—Old Rasputin is a beer worth committing to.

Antares Imperial Stout

Name: Antares Imperial Stout

Served at: Antares Brewpub (Mendoza), bottled version in various bars in Palermo

Brewer: Antares

Type: (Style / mode of delivery) Imperial Stout, draft and bottle

ABV: 8.5%

Label (5): 4

Look-Cs (color, clarity, carbonation, cap, and constancy) (20): 16

Snout (15): 12

Texture (20): 15

Flavor (30): 22

X-Factor (10): 7

Total: 86

If this beer were a holiday, it would be Christmas

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In late December in Argentina, people flock to the major seaside resort town of Mar del Plata to relax for the holidays. Three industrious young friends from this town started a brewery in the early 90s with the goal of rescuing the tradition of craft brewing. Several nice beers came out of this partnership, with the impressive imperial stout topping the list.

The beer pours a dark mahogany brown with a beige thin head, which lasts throughout drinking, with minimal lacing. The snout is very inviting: roasty, sweet, with coffee, pine, anise, cherry in the nose. The taste expands on the smell with a nice chocolatey, nutty flavor. 

After two rough days of riding bikes from winery to winery, this beer served as the ideal nightcap for hours spent soaking up Malbec. While it was creamy and rich, the anise like flavor also provided a refreshing twist (much like a Gin and Tonic can be both the perfect summer and winter cocktail).

I've had a tough time coming to terms with the holiday season in 100 degree weather, and this beer made me want to run straight for my xmas stocking.

Memphis Slim: Beer-Drinkin Woman

Beer tastings at Seattle Farmer's Markets?

The Seattle Times reports that beer and wine samples may be available at farmer's markets in the Seattle area, if state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) is successful in getting Senate Bill 5029 through.


If approved, the bill would create a tightly controlled pilot project where the liquor control board selects 10 farmer's markets to host one microbrewery or winery per market per day. The project would begin in July 2011.


In these increasingly nasty political times, perhaps a delicious, high quality craft beer is enough for some to cross the aisle. 


Politics in the great Northwest does have a history of beer and good will leading to positive compromise. 

Bolivia's El Inca Dark Beer

Name: El Inca

Served at: Restaurant in downtown La Paz

Brewer: Cerveceria Boliviana Nacional

Type: (Style / mode of delivery) Schwarzbier

ABV: 3%

Label (5): 3

Look-Cs (color, clarity, carbonation, cap, and constancy) (20): 9

Snout (15): 9

Texture (20): 10 

Flavor (30): 8

X-Factor (10): 8

Total: 47

If this beer were a protest, it would have gone awry

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Nastay.

The shifty eyed reaction of the waiter when I ordered it should have been more heartily noted. Overly sweet aroma to match a syrupy sweet taste. No complexity. Not worth drinking, or reviewing extensively.