Chiltern Lord Lieutenants Porter

This dark red bottled beer has far too watery a palate to be a real porter. It has only a faint aroma and not much in the flavour area, either, although there are some roasted and chocolate flavours. As the only beer of the evening, it was just about passable. If I’d had it after a better porter or stout, it would have left no impression whatsoever.

500ml bottle, bought from the brewery, consumed August 2006. An interesting beer that probably would have been even more interesting with bottle conditioning. Somewhere between a porter and an old ale in style. Certainly not one of the more modern pseudo-stout porters. Deep chestnut brown colour. Woody aroma, with earthy edges and a touch of oxidised wet cardboard. Dry, rustic malt in the flavour with some powdery bitter chocolate. Somewhat musty mouthfeel. Quite tough finish - firm and slightly sharp.

Deep brown with a nice cap of tan. Sort of an odd aroma. Half way between smoke and vinyl car seats. Some sour twang. A bit of good dry cracker maltiness, but an excessive, astringent sourness. It seems a little less harsh once you made it half way through the pint, but still not good. Sort of a thin palate. This tastes a little like someone took a stab at brewing a porter (a little bit of this, a little bit of that...) and then never bothered to tweak their recipe. Palatable, but really clunky.

Bottle, thanks Chris_o. Very deep chestnut with thin beige head. Toffee, whisky aroma. Slight musty. Nice choc porter though if a touch astringent

[Bottled] Pale nut brown. Sweetish and nicely roasty with fairly hard but rounded mouthfeel. Some caramel and butterscotch. Fairly low bitterness. Light for a porter.