Big Al Smoked Porter

Brewed by Big Al Brewing
Style: Smoked
Seattle, Washington USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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Black body with brown underpinning. Residue of creamy head. Incredible, knock your socks off symphony of smells that includes light smoke, roast barley, dark chocolate, milk chocolate. Wonderful roasted flavor with some dusted malt and dry coffee beans in the back of the throat. I will keep an eye out for this one and hope to taste again.

Taster - Big Al Brewery - Seattle, WA – What a kick in the ass beer. The smoked porter was rocking. Great flavors, colors and aromas. WOW, I loved the peat flavor this was truly heaven in a pint glass.

On Tap At Big Al Brewery West Seattle Pours out a very dark brown topped with a cream tan head. Aroma of coffee, smoke, and a rich malt. Tast was very nice a Great sweet touch of dark chocolate. A good amount of smoke and roast malts. Not over the top just right. WOW BIG Al’s on the way watch out.

Draft at the brewery. Pours a deep ebony with big garnet highlights. Thick, dense, moussy tan head that really sticks around. Big chocolatey nose combined with a little bit of roast and campfire as well. Thick, creamy body that mellows into a much lighter, almost chuggable beer after a couple sips. It might have warmed up really quickly in the small glass, but it has a great body to it for sure either way. Just hard to describe accurately. Lovely mid-palate with smoke, roast, and plenty of chocolate showing. It is a lot like Alaskan Smoked Porter turned upside down. Instead of the beef jerky leavened by sweetness that that beer offers, Big Al gives you a sweet session porter accented with smoke and roast but without the salt. Long chocolate roast finish. Great, great beer. To me, this is their flagship, and the Abbey Wheat is the crowd-pleaser for people just making their way into craft beer.

This one and Harvest were the best at their brewery. Coffee, chocolate, and that smoked finish with a good body, was perfect for a cold night.

Very tasty. I tried a sample of this at the market in downtown Snoqualmie (old town). Met Big Al there, and I had to make a few trips back in subsequent weeks to get more - doing research, ya know. It inspired me to brew a smoked stout using peat-smoked barley.

On tap at Kates Pub. Pour is dark brown with some red hues. Head goes too quickly. The aroma is a fantastic mix of sweet dark malts, chocolate, coffee, burnt and smoked malts. Perhaps a touch of molasses. The flavor is also a nice mix of initial chocolate and molasses sweetness followed by pleasant undertones of smoke and burnt malts. More sweetish in the finish than smokey, but you can still tell its there. Really tasty stuff.

Brown color. Ham, smoke, bitter chocolate, dark roasted malt. Light sweetness is overtaken by the roast and smoke.

Draft at Circa. Paired awesomely with their meatloaf. Black pour with a thick light tan head. Smokey nose with roasty notes and gentle chocolatiness. Tastes of dry chocolate, fairly low levels of char, nice wood smoke that doesn’t drown out the sweeter notes. Yummy.

Bomber from Malt & Vine. Pours dark brown/black with a creamy/bubbly tan head. For aroma I get very nice chocolate, but I have to really dig for smoke. It’s there. Med+ body. Flavor is pretty smoked. Then there’s some very nice smooth burnt malt, followed by more smoke. The chocolate is almost lost. As for the hop? Well the ale is bitter. Actually a very tasty drink, but it has a certain challenging complexity on sorting the flavors out.