3.8 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
Roasty, toasty and chock full of Sumatra coffee. Bigger bodied porter, some hints of alcohol (anyone know the ABV?) that really dries out the finish nicely. HIghly recommended!
3.6 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Tap. Coffee and chocolate malt aroma. Dark brown color with small head. Slightly sweet chocolate malt and lightly bitter ash/herb flavor. Body a bit light. A nice drinkable beer.
3.3 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 11/20
On tap at brewpub
Moving on to the porters and stouts I was less impressed with what came at the end of the flight. While they weren’t terrible they just felt like they were lacking something that gave them an edge over any other beer brewed to a paint by numbers recipe. Even so it isn’t a bad fallback.
Aroma / Appearance - Reddish black with spindly legs the beer slips down the sides slowly. Black coffee, ash, and a dry smoky malt bill nibble at the senses but never are strong enough to attract a bite.
Flavor / Palate - Thin in the mouthfeel the texture is a bit watery. Like coffee left too long in the pot it has a strong bite. The taste of day old coffee proceeds to linger for a while before fading slowly. Average to slightly below average this is not the best example of a porter to use when trying to determine the good from the bad.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Had this on tap at Lennies along with lunch. Not much head. Very dark porter. Aroma was coffee and maybe some chocolate in there. The flavor is similar to the aroma, although the roasted flavor comes through. Seemed pretty well balanced. Good, drinkable porter. The ABV is 5.0. Sumatran coffee beans are used.
3.3 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
On tap at the brewpub. Wish this one had been on cask, but enjoyed it even so. Oily dark pour, with a thin but persistent head and nice lacing. Soft mellow chocolate and bitter bean in the nose. Perhaps a bit too one-dimensionally bitter in the taste, at the expense of coffee’s deeper and more subtle qualities, but there were enough choc malts and hops to balance things out. Not bad.
3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
On tap at Lennies / Bloomington Brewing Co on 14 March 2010. No ABV stated. Dark brown colour. Looks rather cloudy but too dark to see clearly. Lots of coffee. Rather dry mouthfeel. Some burnt bitterness. Slightly thin and maybe lacks a little depth but, overall, pretty decent.
3.3 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 13/20
On tap at Lennie’s restaurant. Pours a dark red brown with an off-white head. Aroma features a creamy coffee roastiness. Flavor is nice with coffee, roastiness, cream, and cocoa. Starts out strong but unfortunately fades to become somewhat watery by the time I’m finished.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 13/20
Draught at the pub. The last dregs as they switch over fully to Vision Weiss. Aroma dominant coffee with light sweetness. Dark ruby/chestnut edges on a black body. Not watery 0 a medium body and crisp, surprisingly dry and bitter, just a hint of fruity merriment. This veers toward my kind of coffee (stout) - repeatable - and doesn’t try to emulate its obese impy brothers. Borkr by more than a hair, but I do like this.
3 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
On tap at the brewpub. Pours a deep brown colored body with a finger-width, creamy, tan head that dissipates quickly and leaves a moderate lacing. Aroma is pretty much just coffee and a lighter caramel and chocolate. Flavor is similar. A bit thin tasting with mostly coffee and a light malt backing. Medium, astringent finish with some roasty bitterness that slowly dries and leaves a medium length aftertaste. Light to medium body and moderately carbonated. Overall, a pretty unexciting coffee porter, but it was okay with the meal. Not bad.
3.5 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
Draught at brewpub. Nice coffee nose. Body not entirely balanced. The porter is somewhat weak. The coffee keeps the beer interesting. Decent, but not impressive.
3.2 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 5/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
On tap at the brewery. Bloomington Joes Java Porter is black in color with a tan head. The aroma is very plesant and filled with coffee and roasted malts. The taste, however, is very one dimensional. All you get is coffee. This is not a complox porter.
|
