Catawba Valley King Coconut Porter

Brewed by Catawba Valley Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Morganton, North Carolina USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Sampled at GABF on Saturday October 13, first session
Black color, tan head. Sweet, butterscotch scent. Sweet, metallic taste. Medium mouthfeel, low bitterness. Weird aftertaste.

Tap @ Thirsty Monk. Black pour, with light brown head. Sweet coconut oil scent, some roasted malts. Flavor of a nutty, buttery porter. Nice roast. Heavy bodied. (3431)

Pouts black into a shaker. Mocha head recedes to skim surface. Chocolate aromas. Spritzy with dark chocolate upfront turning to chocolate in the lasting mild espresso finish.

On draught at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge in Asheville. Pours almost opaque black into the glass, with a frothy eggshell head that leaves generous lacing. I pick up chocolates in the nose. the Flavors are of lightly toasted malt, toffee, some coconut flesh, roasted grains, vanilla and light chocolates. The finish is clean and and lightly roasted. This feels active on the palate without being zesty. Decent porter, albeit just a touch thin in the mouth. Nothing too distracting, and an appreciated take on the style. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Draft. Almost black, beige head. Aroma of coconut milk and cocoa. Taste is coconut flesh and dark milk chocolate, like a Mounds bar in a glass. Nice.

Draught from the Chocolate Lounge in Asheville, which is, in fact, a place to buy shit-tons of chocolate. Luckily, they also had this available, which I opted to have for dessert. Great coconut and chocolate and vanilla on the nose, really strong at first, but then much more mild as the pint went down. Maybe because I was also sampling friend’s chocolates, but this ultimately tasted more like a gourmet drinkable chocolate. I loved it.

Barley’s Taproom Asheville NC. A solid looking near black pour, adequate light tan head. Aroma has a nice blend of roast malt, chocolate, light coconut and "earth". Taste has good roast malt and coffee, some chocolate and vanilla that is probably present from the coconut. The coconut is really just barely present throughout. Finish with a nice bitterness. Solid medium body. Pretty darn good. Better than the Pisgah porter, but not quite as good as the Foothills People’s porter I had in the same sitting.

Sampled at the 13th Annual Knoxville Brewer’s Jam. Brown-red with a beige head. Big coconut aroma, roast. Taste is more coconut sweetness, chocolate, roast.

Looked good... wasn’t a bad porter in all, just wasn’t coconut. That was a bit disappointing to me. Also a bit weak..

UPDATED: SEP 26, 2009 Brewgrass 2009 Pours clear brown, much lighter than I expect for a Porter. Very little coconut aroma, some malt. The flavor is also very light on the coconut and the Porter is weak. Thin, disappointing.