Alaskan Smoked Porter

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Smoked
Juneau, Alaska USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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22oz - Booming roasted notes with pervasive, appetizing smoke. Total lack of weight and mouthfeel.

Shared by someone at the Monte’s Krown tasting yesterday. 2008 vintage. Pours a coffee black with an eggshell head. Pure smoke and maple in the nose. Very heavy on the smoke flavor in the taste, along with the requisite porter components. Decent, but not great.

Pours black with a thick, lasting head, and a smokey, roasty, malty aroma. Taste is moderately complex, with notes of roasted, smokey malt. Has a moderately bitter and lingering finish which is good, not overpowering. This is a pretty good porter, and the smoke adds something new for me. I could see buying this again.

Bottle. Thanks to GT2 . Pours very dark brown with a brown head. Aroma is smokey with fudge, toffee, milk chocolate, cocoa, liquorice and some wildish leather. Very nice and mellow balance. Taste is english liquorce, earthy notes, cocoa, bitter coffee, leather, weak smoke, hops and a pretty dry end. Very nice.

Bottle: Poured a dark chocolate brown with a tan colored head. Aroma is rich bakers chocolate with nice smokey edge. Taste is bakers dark chocolate, rich coffee, nice smokey grit and flavorful roasted malt.

bottle thanks GT2. pours dar brown with a reddish hue, Aroma: the smoke is very present, salami, bonfire, Bamberg malts, cured meats, salty, salt water, the smoke is a bit overwhelming and its hard to pinpoint much else than that, but i get some sweet malty notes, caramel. taste: very balanced, salty smoke, salami, grassy hops, bonfire, some tar, ashy, a bit more thinbodied than what I expected, chocolate, vanilla, dry. leathery, new wallet, earthy, light acidic, the smoke really compiments this porter!

2010 bottle from GT2. Pours dark brown with a small rim of head. Aroma starts off with a good bucker of smoke, some nice roast and chocolate, some dark fruit and vanilla, yeast esters, light hoppiness. Nice powerful aroma for a 6% beer. Taste is roasted up front with dark chocolate, coffee, roasty sourness and then the smoke comes up - lovely stuff. Body is rather thin, and the finish is soft and slighty bitter. Very nice for the style!

June 2009: I wrote this on BA. 2008 brew, 651ml brown bottle. Came to Shropshire via California and Prague, this was one well travelled bottle. Poured into a ’Palm’ tulip shaped glass three times. Deep dark, ruby red, looked completely black until held up to a strong light, then the true colour became evident. Good tan coloured head on each pour, but faded to a wisp and collar as the beer wqs consummed. Really smokey aroma, almost nicotine smokey. I have been to Bamberg to try the smoked beers there (on a few occasions) and nothing compares to the smokey aroma of this porter. Too smokey for me to be honest, I tried to get into it, but it isn’t a smoked ham or bacon flavour, this is a full in your face smoke house taste. My wife was pleased to hear it was most likely the only bottle of this beer in the UK. She didn’t want me to have to drink another! I found it heavy going, but managed to finish the bottle, cheese and crisps helped me see it off.

Bottle. Pours a dark black/brown with medium tan head. Aromas are bold of oak, campfire, ashy. Taste is smokey bacon, other smoked meats, campfire, roasted ashiness. While the smoke component certainly dominates the flavor - it is not one dimensional and one can pull many flavors from the smoke. Best smoke beer I may ever have. Really a delicate malt balance.

Poured into a snifter. 2011 vintage. Big thanks to Callmecoon for this. 3.5 A: Black color. Two fingers of frothy light brown head. Retention is average and a moderate amount of lacing is left. 4.5 S: Smells wonderful! Bacon smokiness with a touch of campfire underneath. Caramel, supple roastiness, and chocolate notes. Clean, lightly grainy maltiness. 3.5 T: The smokiness in the taste is of a bit more charred variety. Still bacony as well though. Dry, ashy roastiness. Light chocolate and caramel. 2.5 M: Lighter medium body. Plenty of carbonation and slightly biting. Lacking creaminess. 3.5 D: Good beer, but smells a lot better than it tastes. After having a much better smoked porter yesterday, this has disappointed. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 04-06-2012 02:53:05

Huge thanks to RedBrewer83 (BA) for this awesome beer in a trade awhile back! Vintage 2009 poured into a pint glass. Pours a very thick, syrupy, jet-black. A massive tan head grows on top. Excellent retention; left tons of sticky lace all over the glass. Big chocolate and roasted coffee scents burst out, but the finish of smoked ham comes through with a vengeance! Wow. That’s awesome. This beer is like silk. So smooth and creamy; I’d like to wrap up in this next to the fire. Subtle carbonation throughout. The cocoa and coffee comes out a bit in the flavor as well, and leaves a bit of a charred flavor in there as well. The smoky character comes out in the backend, leaving a roasted aftertaste. This is not overpowering with smoke, rather, there is a great balance with the Porter flavors and smokiness. Well done. I’m gonna store away the other 2 bombers I got of this and try them in a few years or so. Recommend.