Deep-browned chocolate liqueur-scented stout with dry nutty core perusing soured prune-fig finish retains strong alcohol presence. Sweet brown chocolate enrichment enhanced by anise-spiced raspberry puree tang, but cloying nature sometimes upends maple oatmeal backbone of full-bodied New Englander. Brewery defunct: 2005.

Promising coffee-oiled cappuccino entry and transient cocoa-dried dark chocolate spell bring dissipating up-front pleasantry. But oats-charred hop bittering and ashen tar acridity subsume initial mocha bounty as well as ancillary dried-fruited cherry-fig souring and smoked nut segue, allowing musty earthen graining to relegate mushroomed piney bottom.