Dragoon Scout Porter

Brewed by Dragoon Brewing Company
Style: Smoked
Tucson, Arizona USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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Deep brown pour, light brown head. Love the mix of fudge, smoke and dark dried fruit notes. The smoke doesn’t overpower or add any bandaid nasty flavors. Really a great tasting beer with a subperb body. These guys are good!

Sampled @ AZ Strong Beer Fest. Have enjoyed everything from these guys thus far! Dark chocolate pour with a light latte head. Cocoa, brownie batter, fudge, charred wood, vanilla, and subtle coffee notes. The smoke adds a nice complexity but isn’t overly aggressive. More campfire than roaring inferno, which is pleasant. Well done!

A vigorous pour into my New Belgium Globe glass produces a fat-two-finger thick, nicely brown tinged, dark tan colored head; this leaves some light lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is an opaque, concentrated brown color that shows a brilliantly clear, concentrated ruby hue when held up to the light. The aroma has a spicy, smoky character to it that is quite distinct. Underneath this is a toasted, whole grain brown bread, cocoa, and burnt cracker like malt character. The brown malt / toasted grain character in the aroma is actually quite prominent. Somewhat burnt, roasted notes are noticeable after a bit.

This has a nice, cocoa like, lightly sweet, rich dark malt character to it up front, as well as an up front, palate clinging rich body. Towards the end though the beer dries out considerably with burnt / roasted malt notes, a thinner palate presence and a lingering sharp smokiness that lingers on the palate with a bitter roast character. The smoke both contributes to the savory richness up front and the sharp, drying finish. As the beer warms up it gets richer and tends to thin out less in the finish. The smoke character mixes with cocoa notes, and a rich brown bread character that makes this beer quite toothsomely opulent.

Mesquite can be a harsh smoke quite easily, this beer luckily has enough malt richness to stand up to the mesquite smoke; there is a touch of burnt plastic like character to this in the finish, but only a hint and the smokiness manages to stay amazingly smooth. This is actually better than the cask version with Cacao Nibs and Chipotles as that one plays up the sharp notes in the Mesquite smoke and can get a little sharp. The savory, richly toasted, brown bread chewy character, smooth smokiness, is what makes this beer. Surprisingly good, I wasn’t expecting the mesquite smoke to work nearly as well as it has here.