Today we’re going to take a look at Dogfish Heads American Brown Ale, Palo Santo Marron. Reading the bottle label you’ll find out that Palo Santo wood comes from the South American country of Paraguay. The tanks built at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware are 10,000 gallons a piece and are the largest wooden brewing vessels built-in America since before Prohibition. If you ever happen to find yourself in Milton, Delaware and are actually able to book yourself a guided tour of Dogfish’s facilities they’ll tell you the legend of how Palo Santo wood came to end up in Delaware. Founder of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione heard of this mysterious wood, deep in the jungles of South America. He took a trip down to Paraguay to see what all the fuss was about. Upon discovering one of these trees he decided to take a sample back to the United States for analysis. He took out an ax and started chopping, but to no avail, the Palo Santo wood was simply too dense to chop through. Upon seeing his struggle his guide took out his .45 pistol and fired a shot at the tree, only to have the bullet ricochet back at them. Frustrated but not one to be deterred he eventually was able to have enough of the wood cut down to build their 10,000 gallon aging vessels and Palo Santo Marron was born.
Fun Facts about Palo Santo wood:
- Palo Santo wood is so dense and heavy that it actually sinks in water
- Palo Santo trees are haunts for extremely aggressive jungle ants. As a method of torture during wartime some South American tribes would tie captured enemies to these tree so they would be attacked by these vicious ants
- Palo Santo means Holy Tree in spanish
(Pictured Above) Palo Santo Marron by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Palo Santo's bottle cap: cleverly designed to look like the rings of a tree
A freshly poured Palo Santo Marron
Details
Style- American Brown Ale
ABV- 12%
IBU- 50
Price and Package- $12.99 to $15.99 Sold in 4 packs only
Brewery- Dogfish Head
Quick Overview-Palo Santo Marron
Pour- this pours really thick with a beautiful two finger brownish white head. The body and consistency are thick and very stout like.
Appearance- This beer is dark, like a moonless night, dark as a bottomless pitt or in some circumstances dark as your soul. It leaves a really good amounts of lacing around the glass as it is sipped.
Aroma- A very sweet chocolate, vanilla, caramel and bourbony oak smell. It’s very inviting on the nose and gives you a little bit of a boozy burn at the end.
Flavor/Taste- The first impression that I got from tasting this beer is that it’s extremely full bodied and flavorful. Good amounts of carbonation initially on the tongue and bursting with a bouquet of flavors. I’ll say it again, this beer is bursting with flavor. Vanilla, caramel, chocolate, subtle malts, raisin and coffee to name a few. Very creamy and rich mouthfuls, this beer is thick and tasty. Towards the end you taste a little bit of an alcohol after burn.
Overall- A+ this is one good beer. I personally would enjoy this as an after dinner drink, it’s something that’s meant to be sipped slowly. It really is a perfect winter time beer. This may sound crazy considering the price, but I would like to try maybe pouring is over some coffee ice cream or something like that. Not for the faint of heart though, this beer is complex and is very different from a lot of beers out there on the market. With it’s high alcohol and pitch black complexion I would classify this as more of a Russian Imperial Stout.
