Region: Delaware

Style: oak-aged Imperial IPA

Price: $14.99/4-pk at Total Wine

ABV: 10%

Sight: reddish orange

Smell: vanilla, huge caramel, cinnamon bread

Taste: caramel, vanilla, creamy, citrus hop, cedar

Overall:  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one; it just sounds like it has a lot going on.  It’s not just an IPA, but an Imperial IPA (read: Extra-Super Mega-IPA Plus), and also it’s oak-aged—I’m still learning what oak means for beer as opposed to wine.  It pours bronze-red with a dense white head and blankets the glass in what I hesitate to call “lacing;” I almost want to call it “cotton” in this case.  Aroma-wise, I get a faceful of sweet bakery notes (vanilla, cinnamon, caramel) which are probably just as much from the malt as they are from the oak-imparted vanillin.  These aromas follow through as flavors on the palate, but they are engulfed in a big, structural hop bitterness, accented by a warm, woodsy cedar bass note.  It’s as if this would have been really decadent and dessert-like, were it not for its hop-charged nervous system, imparting all this energy and bitter sensation.  Dynamic and artfully layered, Burton Baton smoothly juggles filled-out malt, vanillin impositions, orange-rind hops, and a damp cedarwood stump.  I won’t lie to you—it’s a dense beer, and it’s at 10% ABV, and it’ll try and take you down, but it’s graceful nonetheless.  Worth winding down with after a long day.