Sixpoint Black Soul

Nitro at Blind Tiger. Chocolate cakey dark roast malt aroma with an underlying nuttiness. Flavor basically like a bittersweet chocolate and hazelnut torte with a mild hop backing and an underlying grain character. In other words, overall chocolate flavor with something lighter underneath, perhaps a creative blend of dark and light malts. Creamy palate from the nitro. A satisfying, not too sweet porter.

Draft at Blind Tiger. Dark pour with a very dense creamy head. Nice chocolatey aroma, banana, some yeast, no alcohol that I could detect. Well balanced, but a little flat in the nose. Flavor is similar with a big punch of chocolate at the end. This beer looks and feels like it was on nitrogen. Interesting. I’d have to have it again to get a real idea on it.

2 draught pints at Burp Castle on 9/23/06.
Dark tar-like black-brown, mostly opaque, with a hint of deep magenta on the edges, in the light. Creamy light-caramel colored head is well-retained and laces lightly as it recedes.
Strong molasses-like bittersweetness is evident up-front, while some creamy, lightly milky-like buttercream sweetness fattens things. A dollop of chocolate syrup washes over the nose and then is consumed by a gorgeous, ashy, roastiness that is brittle, delicate and displays great caution in its use. Hops provide an afterthought of green, leafy buds, some sticky resin qualities and light floral notes, trimmed by the chocolate and pale malt combo of sticky sweetness and drying roast. Aroma strength is medium-high, with no alcohol apparent and less yeast character than seen in Six-Point’s paler beers, no doubt due to the darker malts being used.
Sticky-sweetness is present, from the start, in the flavor, almost like a combo of gritty pale-malt sugars, cookie-like with hints of vanillla-flavored fudge and beads of molasses providing an off-setting bitterness and the defining stickiness. But soft hop bitterness and light, ashen roast help pick apart this stickiness and the beer finishes balanced, and by no means too sweet. Some nuances of coffee beans emerge as it warms, with more a focus left on the main flavors of caramel and chocolate. The typical one-two punch of brilliant malt-extraction and proper attenuation are here again wonderfully represented. The body provides heft and thickness up front, but eases out to become drinkable and quenching as it finishes, never compromising on flavor, of which it has quite a bit. Yet again, I don’t find bittering hops to be in excess in the least, nor do the flavoring hops dominate the beer. Notably, roast does not build up to a palate fatiguing astringency as it is apt to do in many American porters. Alcohol is not evident. Carbonation is moderate. As far as criticism, there was just a bit too much of a chocolate syrupy-like sweetness that built up, slightly, as I finished my second pint.
All in all, this was a hell of a weekend for trying Six Point beers. Whether off the fermentor or tap at the brewery, and on tap at Burp Castle, all were in peak form.

Draft at barcade. Pours a very dark brown/almost black, with decent tan & creamy head. Aroma is burnt chocolate malts. The flavor is light, not much comes through, however it’s creamy, but thin at the same time. Simple, with a slightly bitter finish.

Tasty and powerful porter. Nice aroma full of roast and caramel. Taste stays on the tongue and reminds me almost of a Baltic. This porter is artfully done. Tap at Barcade.