This brew, as the style would suggest, is a dark brown (a deep garnet or chestnut, really), with a solid amount of creamy tan head that leaves solid lacing.It has great aromas of toffee, vanilla, fruit (actually lighter ones, like orange), some slightly woody notes.
Fantastic flavour... I'm digging this. It tastes like a Christmas ale or another of Belgium's great dark beers (to which I prefer this to most it seems). You get the toffee and light candi sugar sweetness first, but once that fades a bit, the flavour morphs into caramelized sugar... think the top of a crème brûlée or the outside of a marshmallow roasted over a campfire. It's light and thin enough to be very drinkable, especially for being 8.5% ABV, but its heft really kicks in once you've swallowed.
The finish is really clean, the body medium and smooth, and the carb gentle.
What an excellent brew with a lot of character. One of those beers whose flavours actually outpace its other aspects. I just went online and ordered two more.