A small sensible bottle of very strong beer from a classic New England brewery. I picked up one of each in the Leviathan series, this and the Imperial IPA. With a wall of snow outside and after shoveling my way in only to put the car exactly where it will be stuck in the morning, it was really more of a Baltic Porter moment.

It pours mahogany with a mocha foam and rim with Thompson raisin and dark chocolate on the nose. In the mouth plenty of layers. A significant minty hop that holds it form from start to finish, like the drone of a bagpipe, adding to the moment. With that there is a concentrated seam of malt with prune, cocoa and a bit of licorice. A slight burn tingles by a rear upper molar. I take away some pumpernickel graininess, too. A creamy roasty somewhat hefty mouth feel.

Plenty of BAer love and it is not deservedly so? I wonder what I paid for this? How did they pull this off? So many questions in fact but is that not what Job 41:19-22 foretold?

Shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

Fish spear, eh? That's a harpoon, right?