Berkshire Kentucky Porter

Brewed by Berkshire Brewing Company
Style: Porter
South Deerfield, Massachusetts USA

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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UPDATED: SEP 13, 2006 Draught pint at Redbones on 9/1/06.
Thin, beige head is not long retained, fading in to the edges, with no lacing. Liquid is highly unfiltered, near-black and opaque.
Before even picking up the beer, the bourbon wafts up. Strong and deeply bourbony, it certainly seems to be dominant. Closer inspection and there really isn’t much other than bourbon. Granted it’s not overly harsh, tannic, dry wood notes alongside it, but it barely smells like beer. Some light chocolate sweetness, fresh yeast and a bit of roast plunging through the bourbon...but mostly bourbon. And to its credit, the bourbon smells lovely, but I didnt order this to delve the deep depths of a bourbon nose. I wanted a beer.
The flavor, then, is not surprisingly overdone with bourbon. Wood is lightly dry on the end, but otherwise not harsh and tannic. Chocolate and some light ashiness/chalkiness are contributed from the roasted barley, but the extremely low carbonation, and more English-like watery, sessionable texture/body certainly don’t hold up to the heavy bourbon. Some peanut skins, coconut and light vanilla sit on the end. But it’s just too much for too easygoing a base beer. Odd, as Berkshire is usually very dedicated to balance.

UPDATED: NOV 26, 2009 Pours dark brown with a thin off white head. Smells of chocolate, roasted malt, vanilla. Tastes dry, lactic and earthy with a bitter finish. Draught sample at the Brattleboro location September 2006.

10 oz draught glass at Flat Street Brewpub in Brattleboro, VT, August 2006. Dark brown, verging on black-purple with a smidgeon of instantly-dying head and a touch of lace....big chocolaty-oaky nose, plenty of maple and vanilla, rich and decadent though at first there’s mostly just booze, it doesn’t open up for quite a few minutes...body is whiskey-dominated as well but the porter character does shine through again with some breathing room, roasty chocolate and a bit of vinous/grapy sourness....gets a bit tarry and too bitter-chocolate dominant towards the finish, which is a bit dull in the mouth, carbonation perhaps a little too low and sticky. Still on the whole I thought this a worthwhile endeavor.