Dark Woods - Cisco Brewers Inc.

jrallen34

Illinois

4.4/5  rDev +18.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Shared on a beautiful Chicago afternoon with Alex, Sean, and Mike. 750ml bottle into a Lost Abbey glass...A dark brown pour with a light tan head, carbonated, good retention and lacing...The aroma lets you know without a doubt this is a blend, you can really pull out almost all the different beers from the 8 blended. Its super complex, at one point I think too much is going on, but it balances well. Notes of red wine, vinegar, oak, vanilla...The taste is equally complex but doesn't pull it off as well as the aroma, but still pretty good. Very vinous, lots of oak, vanilla, sour but more qualities of a strong ale in the taste. The more you drink this the better it gets and more easier to drink.

A surprise in how good a blend can be, worth trying for the aroma alone.

Serving type: bottle

08-28-2010 21:07:15 | More by jrallen34

Photekut

Azerbaijan

3.5/5  rDev -5.7%

05-19-2013 01:57:11 | More by Photekut

drewone

California

3.75/5  rDev +1.1%

05-07-2013 07:06:08 | More by drewone

THECPJ

Delaware

3.75/5  rDev +1.1%

04-01-2013 02:15:05 | More by THECPJ

spycow

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev +1.1%

03-31-2013 16:56:09 | More by spycow

FLBeerGuy

Florida

4/5  rDev +7.8%

01-28-2013 02:57:33 | More by FLBeerGuy

AlexFields

Tennessee

2.25/5  rDev -39.4%

01-11-2013 20:43:31 | More by AlexFields

westcoastbeerlvr

California

2.5/5  rDev -32.6%

01-09-2013 21:58:04 | More by westcoastbeerlvr

jbertsch

Massachusetts

2.75/5  rDev -25.9%

01-03-2013 00:06:03 | More by jbertsch

Cnorrisl

Rhode Island

4.25/5  rDev +14.6%

08-24-2012 17:44:32 | More by Cnorrisl

billab914

Virginia

3.6/5  rDev -3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

750ml bottle poured into my Allagash glass. Dark brown in color with a half inch of frothy foam covering the top. Great head retention and lacing as I drank it.

The aroma has a pretty nice mix of funky, fruity and malty. Sour cherries, caramel and oak wood are the first things that jump out at me, but I started to get a touch of chocolate and red wine as it warmed. The tart fruit qualities have a little bit of an acidic quality to them, but not too bad.

The taste is where things don't come together that well for me. It shows a lot of the tart fruit and sour cherry flavors up front. The finish is where it seems to thin out and get a little watery. I get more of a lighter, porter like quality in the finish with just a little of the tart, funky flavors that it had up front. A little of the wood is lingering in the finish as well.

The mouthfeel is on the thinner side with carbonation being a little low for the style. Overall, it was a pretty good beer. It had a good aroma to it, but the bold flavors just didn't hold up in the taste. Pretty good beer to sip on this evening, but not a standout in the style.

Serving type: bottle

08-18-2012 00:44:55 | More by billab914

Archemedies

Massachusetts

3.25/5  rDev -12.4%

07-11-2012 18:22:35 | More by Archemedies

thagr81us

South Carolina

3.55/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Big thanks goes out to LarryG for sending me this one in a past trade! Shared during a recent tasting! Served from bottle into a Mikkeller taster flute. Poured a massively dark brown with a one finger off-white head that subsided to a minimal amount slowly. Maintained decent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, wood, caramel, fruit, and subtle tart. The flavor was of sweet malt, earth, caramel, wood, fruit, and nutty. It had a light feel on the palate with a medium-high carbonation. Overall this was a fairly decent brew. I have to say that this was one of the more disappointing brews from the series. Not really sure what they were shooting for here, but the sweet note definitely dominated this one unfortunately. Wish there was a little more sour and tart in this one to help out with the sweetness. Glad I got to share it with the rest of the series though.

Serving type: bottle

03-30-2012 10:39:09 | More by thagr81us

mbs11

Massachusetts

4.25/5  rDev +14.6%

03-29-2012 03:43:41 | More by mbs11

jsilva

Massachusetts

3.5/5  rDev -5.7%

02-22-2012 04:18:15 | More by jsilva

sliverX

New York

4/5  rDev +7.8%

02-21-2012 04:54:29 | More by sliverX

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

4.1/5  rDev +10.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

tom's bottle, thanks for sharing. Dark coloured with a dark lacing. Complex aroma with a fruity edge. Taste like a shiraz wine, and also fruity, edgy, rum and coke, edge from the cranberries, other dark fruit. Brett in the secondary. Everything adds to the complex taste, yet smooth and drinkable. Aging gave it maturity.

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2012 04:59:18 | More by northyorksammy

chrispoint

Connecticut

3.5/5  rDev -5.7%

02-18-2012 17:06:42 | More by chrispoint

djrn2

New Jersey

3.5/5  rDev -5.7%

02-18-2012 05:49:01 | More by djrn2

ygtbsm94

Virginia

3/5  rDev -19.1%

01-31-2012 09:36:14 | More by ygtbsm94

Goblinmunkey7

Massachusetts

3/5  rDev -19.1%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

Thanks to angrybabboon for sharing the bottle.

Appearance: Deep rich brown. Head is tan, smooth, and creamy. Leaves a decent cap on the beer throughout. Relatively clear, but holds a slight haze overall.

Smell: Faintly toasted. Citric bite. Deep cherry notes. Oak adds a nice counter to the sour. Earthy. Faintly sweet with a nutty finish. Almost bready, as in multigrain bready. Cocoa notes. Some roasted malts.

Taste: Where did the sour go? Nuts nad wood, but the malts run to cocoa and leather with a lingering sweetness. Sweet berry mixed with old wood and cocoa. Literally straddles the line between a stout and a barrel aged wild. Flavors meld after half a glass, but don't really get along.

Mouthfeel: Moderate. Carbonation is on the low side, especially for a Cisco Woods beer.

Overall: The most lackluster beer in the Cisco Woods series. Has a lot of potential on the nose, but the taste can't figure itself out. Stout and sour are present in equal measure, but refuse to work together.

Serving type: bottle

01-27-2012 02:44:33 | More by Goblinmunkey7

angrybabboon

Rhode Island

3.38/5  rDev -8.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Review adapted from notes taken 1/21/12

Appearance: Dark brown, nearly black - starts off with a big tan head, keeps a nearly half-inch cap for a long time - sticky lacing, too

Smell: Basically smells like a stout with Cisco Woods funk - slightly burnt malts, a little roasty, wood - some funk - slight barnyard, some sour, some weirdness that reminds me of Chap Stick

Taste: It's sour and stout-like, but not really a sour beer and not really a stout - malts are slightly burnt - not as burnt or roasted as the appearance would suggest - some chocolate malts, with some lighter malts that add depth - slightly sour, with some funk, acidic - somewhat works with the other flavors, although the malts kind of overpower the sourness - some oak, some dark fruit, a lot of hard to describe flavors

Mouthfeel: Medium body, great carbonation, smooth, slightly sticky

Overall: Not bad, but not that great

There is a lot of stuff going on in this beer, and some of it is just weird. Sour with tons of acidity and somewhat burnt malts... It's strange and a bit messy.

Serving type: bottle

01-25-2012 02:52:10 | More by angrybabboon

stevefinny

New Jersey

3/5  rDev -19.1%

01-20-2012 11:54:08 | More by stevefinny

Faina

Massachusetts

4/5  rDev +7.8%

01-05-2012 03:38:19 | More by Faina

Gonzoillini

Illinois

3.5/5  rDev -5.7%

01-02-2012 22:17:50 | More by Gonzoillini