Coffee Porter

I have another Burial Beer Co. Beer. This one is Slough Water coming in at 5.9% ABV. This is an American Porter with coffee. This beer has barley, oats, triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye), and roasted malts. This porter is conditioned on Methodical Coffee’s Guatemalan Lxlam, Costa Rican La Pastora beans. This dark beer pours a black color with a two-finger beige head. The aroma is bitter, sweet, coffee, roasted, and malty. The beer’s flavor is close to its own aroma. It’s bittersweet, malted, roasted coffee with a bit of molasses. This beer has a full feeling in your mouth. This porter has a bitter coffee-roasted finish. That leads to a faint bittersweet aftertaste. This Burial Beer Co. Slough Water is an A. It isn’t overpowering or thick. It has a good balance of tasty flavors. If you like dark beers with coffee then this is your beer. Please stay safe, be kind to each other, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Kona Pipeline is a porter made with whole-bean Hawaiian Kona Coffee. It is 5.3% ABV. This beer is from the Kona Brewing Co. in Hawaii. But it was brewed in Portland, Oregon. This Pipeline has limited availability. The beer pours a deep dark black with a one-and-a-half-finger beige head. The aroma is roasted coffee, with some bitterness and some licorice-like notes. The flavor is not dissimilar to its smell. There is a roasted dark coffee flavor, bitter notes, and licorice-like flavors. The mouthfeel is full and does coat your tongue some. Then you come to a roasted semi-dry finish. Then you get a chocolate coffee bean aftertaste with mild roasted notes. This Pipeline porter is a good beer that isn’t high in alcohol. I would say this porter is an A-. The overall flavor is bold enough but could be a tiny bit more. That is the only negative I have towards this beer. I highly recommend Pipeline if you are into this type of beer. It has a good level of ABV. It’s not overly heavy. Please stay safe, be kind, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Originally posted on March 13th, 2016.

Coffee for a long while has been a popular ingredient in beer brew, so much so that it has become its sub-style within some styles of beer, like Porter, Stouts, Browns, and even a few blondes and IPAs have been infused with coffee. Some brewers collaborate with a coffee roaster to brew a beer. Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont Colorado brewers this, Hard Wired Nitro Coffee Porter, 6.0% ABV. I have received this beer from Brewpublik (www.brewpublik.com) Now you’re asking yourself what is the nitro in this Porter? Well, nitro or Nitrogen is a transparent and odorless gas. When applied with beer during the brewing process it allows for a draft like taste and appearance to beer a beer without using a widget in the can or bottle. This can give a creamier and tighter head to beer, similar to a draft beer. Left Hand does brew Hard Wired without said Nitro, and they recommend that you pour hard with this and all their nitro beers. Hard Wired pours a black color with a creamy three-finger tight beige head that looks like coffee ice cream. Lots of thick lacing is left behind. When you pour this beer you can see the Nitrogen at work cascading down like falling snow. The aroma is of freshly ground and brewed coffee with hints of chocolate. The taste is so smooth with a nice roasted smooth chocolate flavor that makes this taste like a Mocha Coffee. I would say this bee is almost an easy drinker. The mouthfeel is medium to almost full but rich with a creamy flavor. Hard Wired nitro has a nice smooth sweeter finish with an after taste of chocolate and Mocha coffee flavor. Man, this Porter is outstanding. I would have this over and over again, and would highly recommend Hard Wired Nitro Coffee Porter. So with that said, I give this beer an A+. This is one heck of a great beer and the nitro is a neat and very delicious addition to a good solid coffee Porter! Go try it! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

Originally posted on January 25th, 2014.

Brewer’s today use a vast array of ingredients to be many different types of beer, and more and more experimenting with new ingredients to brew with. One of my favorite ingredients to use in brewing a beer is coffee. Coffee is generally used in Porters and Stouts, and rarely used in IPA’s. Here is a local North Carolina beer, Highland Brewing Company (Asheville, NC) Thunderstruck Coffee Porter, which uses fresh fair trade/organic coffee beans from Black Mountain NC’s Dynamite Roasting Co. Thunderstruck pours a deep black color with a two and a half finger beige head that sticks around for a little while then forms thick ropes of lacing. I couldn’t see much light coming through the glass, but when held to the light the beer has a dark ruby color. I also found no signs of carbonation bubbles. The aroma on Thunderstruck is like a fresh cup/pot of coffee. There is a big roasted aroma that reminds of fresh coffee beans/grounds. There is also a slightly sweet scent. The taste on Thunderstruck is roasted like a nice cup of coffee with hints of faint sweetness and touches of bitterness. I found a nice hint of a chocolate note on the taste as well.  As this beer warms it beings to have less of a roasted taste and more of the sweetness comes through with more hints of bitterness. The mouthfeel is full with a nice richness and has a nice coffee-like finish with little roasted sweetness. The aftertaste is like finishing a semi-sweet cup of fresh coffee. I enjoyed this Thunderstruck Coffee Porter, so I am giving it A-. Highland Brewing really did a good job of brewing a solid coffee porter, and not some ‘coffee-like porters’. Thunderstruck has a good balance among the coffee flavors and the porter flavors and really shines through on the aroma and the taste. I would love to have this again, and I do highly recommend this Thunderstruck Coffee Porter. So go out and try Highland Brewing Company’s Thunderstruck Coffee Porter and see what you think of it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!