Beer In Review: Porter Season Winding Down

Winter is drawing to a close and with it ends porter season. Porters are dark, malty ales which are best suited to drinking in cold weather. While hot weather doesn't stop people from drinking them, most don't. In fact, some brewers consider their porters to be seasonal concoctions and have already ceased making them. So, it's probably a bit late in the season to be reviewing porters. [shrug] Oh well.

I finally picked up a 6 pack of Stone Coast Brewery's (or is it Sunday River Brewing?) Black Bear Porter. With a large black bear on the label, I expected this to be a fairly robust beer. I was a little disappointed by the outcome.

The pour is nice. Big frothy head and a dark brown body. The bouquet is mild though. I really don't smell much of anything. There's enough hops in it to qualify as "robust", probably Cascade. It definitely has a bite, but I'm not sure if it's bear worthy. Roasted, crystal, and chocolate malts come to play, but a little too nicely. I don't know. It just leaves me feeling like something's missing. It's good, but not great. Since there's better out there, I won't be buying any more of it.

Smuttynose's Robust Porter is nothing short of the textbook definition of the classification. It won the gold medal at the 2001 Great American Beer Festival. It's been one of my favorites and I've been wanting to review it for some time.

The aroma is all roasted malt. No light penetrates a pint glass of this stuff so you know you're dealing with some seriously high degrees Lovibond malts (Chocolate and dark crystal at the very least). Even the head has a dark tint to it. When the brew hits your tongue, the roasted malt walks in hand-in-hand with a decent amount of Cascade hops to provide some bite. There's a subtle chocolate follow up but if you blink you'll miss it. Smuttynose confesses to using Carastan malt, which I've learned is another name for English Crystal malt. I don't know what "special 'b'" is, but I suspect it's a brand of Black Patent malt, a highly roasted black malt.

5.7% ABV. Available through New England and down the East coast through Virginia. And, for some reason, Wisconsin.

The updated porter rankings:

1. Anchor Porter
   
2. Smuttynose Robust Porter
   
3. Stovepipe Porter
   
4. Coal Porter
   
5. Road Dog Scottish Porter
   
6. Gonzo Imperial Porter
   
7. Black Bear Porter
   
8. Santa's Butt Porter
   
9. Saranac's Caramel Porter
   
10. Samuel Adams Honey Porter

I'll have to pick up the Stovepipe and have a deathmatch between it and Smuttynose just to make sure that I got it right. I recently had Saranac's Caramel Porter and it reaffirmed it's place in the standings. Way too much caramel.

In other beer news, prices are going up this month (if they haven't already). Beer Guy tells me that a few brewers are passing their increased hops and malt costs along to the consumer. $1 - $3.50 a 12-pack can be expected. Saranac, which is one of the least expensive craft brewers (at least as far as CT pricing goes), is increasing their prices by a buck. Ithaca Brewing is hitting us with $3.50, which I think sends them to the $17+ range. I've got some at the house right now so it'll probably be the last. Beer Guy expects their already mediocre sales to tank. Magic Hat is also on the rise (think closer to Ithaca than Saranac).

More porter reviews to come.

Thanks to Jim and/or Paul for supplying the Smuttynose. Don't know which of you guys picked it up since you carpooled.

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DED