“Our third Life and Limb collaboration is a strong, dark beer that’s rich, full-bodied and always evolving thanks to brewer’s yeast at work in each can. Life and Limb, alive with yeast, also features syrup from birch and maple trees, including those on the Calagione family farm in Massachusetts. While Life and Limb celebrates a special kinship between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish head, our two branches weave into thousands of others to make up the craft beer family tree. sip slowly with friends and loved ones, savor long—because one could do better than be a swigger of birches.”

Glassware: American Pint.

Appearance: Hits the glass with a deep mahogany hue and a big and sturdy three finger head which ain’t budging. It leaves a beautiful mess as we go.

Aroma: We had zero ideas of what to expect from this but initially we’re getting a kinda rich, sweet and toasty number with the feature maple and birch syrup somewhat restrained and the dark fruits, carob and gentle roasty-ness out in front. Heady notes of caramel and toffee, earthy tree bark, dull piney hops, musk/floral accents, residual sugars and ever so slightly cloying syrups. Super weird!

Flavour: And the weirdness continues. Upfront there’s a unique fusion of earthy wood and subtle maple and for a short while we were fearing that’s how it was gonna stay but out of nowhere this rich, roasty, coffee-like flavour takes it in a completely unexpected direction. It garners more roasty support from chocolate, burnt brown sugar, toffee and licorice then finishes sweet, spicy and a little earthy.

Mouthfeel: Fairly thick and chewy but with a discernible bitterness. Medium-full body, mild-moderate Co2. The 10.2% ABV though…wow! Extremely well contained.

Overall: A very edgy yet strangely fun beer. We’d say it lands somewhere between an American Barleywine and a Brown Ale with maple and birch syrups for added complexity. Solid drop from these 2 gargantuan breweries.