Porter

I’ve not had a lot of beers from Divine Barrell Brewing, located here in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have had a few here and there. I haven’t had enough to know if I like Divine Barrell. This beer is We’re Out of Peanut Butter, Frank. This beer is an American Porter with peanut butter. It comes in at 6.8% ABV. This Porter pours black with a three-finger beige/tan sticky head. The aroma is peanut butter, sweetness, and toasted/roasted notes. The flavor is of a sweet roasted/toasted peanut butter and light bitterness towards the back of the tongue. This Porter finishes with a slight bitter-toasted peanut butter flavor. Then you get a light peanut butter aftertaste. This beer is not like a peanut butter cup. Overall it is more like a toasted peanut butter candy bar. We’re Out of Peanut Butter, Frank is not terrible. You get the peanut butter, but everything else is just average. I give this American Porter a C+. It’s a fine peanut butter-flavored Porter, but that’s all. That aspect is not bad. If you see this beer don’t pass it up. But I wouldn’t go out just for We’re Out of Peanut Butter, Frank. Please be kind, stay safe and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

King Titus Port is another beer from Maine Beer Company. This porter is 7.5% ABV. This beer name comes from a silverback gorilla, and this brewery and beer support the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda. This beer has Centennial and Columbus hops. It also has American 2-Row, Caramel 40L, Chocolate, Munich 10L, Midnight Wheat, Caramel 80L, and Flaked Oats malts. This porter pours a deep dark black color with a thick three-finger cream beige head. The aroma is sweet tobacco, chocolate, roasted coffee, and malty. The flavor is creamy and rich. There is coffee, roasted malt flavors, tobacco, and a light hoppy note. The mouthfeel is full. Then this porter has a little hoppy finish. Then you get a roasted chocolate tobacco and malt aftertaste. As this beer warms, the flavors lighten just a little. I found this porter not to be so big and heavy. It has mild ABV for a porter and doesn’t feel so full. It has a lot of flavors to it without being overwhelming. I’d give King Titus Porter an A+. If you see King Titus Porter, then I recommend buying it. Please be kind, stay safe, and remember to enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

A porter-style beer gets its name from the river porters in London that unloaded the boats. This particular porter is Holy City Brewing Pluff Mud Porter, 5.5&% ABV. Brewed in Charleston, South Carolina, this porter pours a black color with a one-finger beige head that slowly dissipates. The aroma is of roasted coffee, licorice, malt notes, and a little sweetness. Taste is similar, licorice, roasted notes, sweet, and malty. It finishes with a nice semi-sweet roasted malt flavor. It has a bittersweet aftertaste that has bits of a malt roast. This porter is easy to drink with good flavors. Holy City Brewing Pluff Mud Porter is a B+. It’s not strong anyway. It has all the flavors of a good porter and without being too strong. I Think Holy city is a great brewery, and you should try this porter. Please be kind, be safe, and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers!

Originally posted on October 9th 2012

Well, the last two days have been looking like dark beer days, cold cloudy, and not well. Here is something to make a bad weather day better. Duck-Rabbit Porter 5.70% ABV, from Farmville, North Carolina, not far from the Outer Banks. The Duck-Rabbit brewery claims itself to be a dark beer specialist. The term Porter comes from old England, in a time when the river cargo unloaders, delivery people. of various buildings enjoyed a heavier beer, so they named the beer Porter. This Porter pours a dark black muddy color with a Khaki almost brown one finger head that dissipated quickly, and what was left formed around the sides, and had very faint lacing. This Porter has a strong roasted coffee aroma with a little tiny raisin scent. I didn’t find any sweetness in the smell or any real dark fruitiness. It’s just a roasted coffee scent that seems to be the theme of its smell. The taste of this beer is fuller-bodied. It also a big roasted coffee taste with a little booziness that coats your tongue and kind of stays a while. The coffee flavor is not bitter at all. The aftertaste is still coffee-like, with a little alcoholic warming feeling going down, but not over or too intense. But after the first taste, it’s somewhat okay, but after a few more, it begins to grow on you. I found it to become a bit better. The taste of this is a bit stronger. So I would say this is a beer you sip and enjoy after dinner or on a dark, cloudy, or rainy day by the fire. It made me feel a bit cozy and happy. I would rate this a B-. Not the best coffee-like flavors on this but still good none the less. Then became a little overly boozy towards the end of the glass. I don’t think I could drink more than seventy-five percent of a twelve-ounce bottle, much less a whole bottle. Good solid beer here, but I think it does have room for some improvement. I would have this again, and I do have one bottle left. This one did surprise me a little. I thought it was going to be at least a D to a D+. But no A good B-. So please go out and try this one and let me know how you like it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon, 5.6% ABV purchaser in Crowler form from Pop The Top Craft Beer Shop is an English-style Porter brewed with fifteen pounds of golden raisins, vanilla, and a touch of coconut. Dark Side of the Loon pours a black color with a quarter finger beige bubbly head that fades into nothing as soon as it from with no traces of it being left behind. I found there to be nice chocolate, black licorice with very faint raisin with some light coffee aromas on the nose that then lead into similar flavors of chocolate, black licorice, nice but light coffee notes with very faint raisin come in for a second on the back of your tongue that comes to a slightly bitter chocolate licorice finish with a licorice aftertaste. King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon is not so great but not the worst Porter, I think its a D, and was something that I did finish two pints of from my crowler but I wouldn’t have again, the weird bitterness towards the end was not that pleasant nor was the chocolate and licorice together, when but together those two tasted weird and bitter.  I didn’t enjoy King Canary Brewing co. Dark Side of the Loon, as much as I was thinking that I would I would not try this beer. Please stay safe at home and please enjoy responsibly! Cheers! 

Originally posted on October 18th, 2013

Aloha! One ingredient used in beer that is enjoyed with or with being brewed into a beer is coffee beans. Coffee beans are used in IPA’s, Stouts, and Porters. The roasted taste of the beans goes well with the roasted malts use in most dark beers. But using them in IPA’s is a new thing and not used so much. This beer Kona Brewing Co.’s Aloha Series Pipeline Porter 5.4% ABV comes all the way from Kona, Hawaii. Pipeline uses one hundred percent Hawaiian Kona Coffee. Pipeline Porter pours a deep and rich black color with a three finger rocky beige head that stays very well and leave nice whiffs of lace behind. I found no light coming through the glass and very little amounts of carbonation bubbles due to the dark color. The aroma on this porter is like freshly roasted dark coffee beans and hints of dark malts. The taste on Pipeline Porter is rich a roasted with hints of semi sweetness that is a big chocolate flavor. I found the tiniest hint of bitterness but one it come it then went away. There is a hint of roasted malts there as well. This Kona Porter, taste like a nice cup of coffee with a hint of sweetness. The mouth feel is medium to almost heavy and is smooth to drink. Pipeline finishes bit roasty with hints of sweetness, and has a semi roasted coffee aftertaste. I enjoyed this Pipeline Porter. It does not over power you with coffee or roasted flavors and isn’t the slightest bitter from the coffee. So Kona Brewing Co.’s Aloha Series Pipeline Porter get an A here. I would defiantly have this Porter again. I recommend that you try this too if you have not yet. Cheers and mahalo! Please enjoy responsibly!

Originally posted on November 10th, 2014.

As we get deep into the fall and closer to winter the store shelves are getting more and more dark beer upon them. I do enjoy dark beers, which has a wide range of styles, dunkers, dunkelweizens, dopplebock, schwarzbier, porter, and stout. Here is a porter from Winston-Salem North Carolina, Foothills Brewing People’s Porter, 5.8% ABV. People’s porter is an English-style porter. People’s Porter pours a dark rube to a black color with a three and a half finger brown thick head that slowly fades into wonderful foamy, creamy lacing. The aroma upon People’s Porter is chocolaty with light hints of some caramel. The taste is similar to its aroma with chocolate and caramel, also there is toffee notes with a slight herbal bitterness that follows that, but nothing overwhelming, People’s Porter has an IBU of 42.  This People’s Porter finish nicely with a pleasant hint of espresso and faint chocolate but more of the espresso is present. The after taste is a nice lingering chocolaty espresso flavor that slowly fades into the next sip of this beer. I enjoyed Foothills Brewing People’s Porter and I would give this a B+. This is a solid English-style Porter, and it is not too heavy or bitter on your taste buds, nor is it too strong. I found People’s Porter to be on the easier side of drinkability throughout the entire pint. I really have grown to like what Foothills Brewing is putting out there. They are brewing great beers! I recommend trying Foothills Brewing People’s Porter, so go out and pick this People’s Porter up and try it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!