Elevator Horny Goat Porter

Brewed by Elevator Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Columbus, Ohio USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Bottle at Flyboys sampler dinner in Dayton. Honestly, the waitress brought the wrong beer but it turned out to be a win for me. A really nice porter with just enough bourbon and vanilla to keep it interesting. Good weight for a porter too. Well done.

Thanks for the share OmegaX. For a barrel-aged brew there wasn’t much evidence of it in the aroma or taste. As for a porter, it was pretty good but the body was a tad thin. I wish I could say more but it’s just your average porter and DEFINITELY didn’t spend enough time in the barrel.

Thanks for the brew, Jeff. Aroma is lightly roasted malts, some vegetable, light whiskey notes, coffee. Pour is brown with a thin tan head. Flavor is similar to the aroma with light roast, some whiskey and not much else. It just seems to lack some intensity in the flavor/aroma. Not bad though.

Courtesy of tectactoe

Bottle: The aroma consists of chocolate, caramel, and a touch of vanilla. It pours a dark brown with some orange transparency and a small beige head that quickly fades to a ring around the edges of the glass. The flavor starts with some watery chocolate and caramel. The finish has light-moderate vanilla with light wood and a hint of roast. It’s light bodied with mild carbonation.

12 oz. bottle via trade. 7.5% - right on the edge of an imperial porter. Pours a dark, mostly opaque cocoa brown with some yeast sediment at the bottom and a finger of beige head that has trailing lace but leaves no spots. Just like the Angry Goat, this one has immediate dark, tart fruits in the nose, with some chocolate, earth, vanilla, and oak. Flavor of dark fruits (tart berries, plums), chocolate, vanilla, earth, and leaves. Light-bodied, with a tart, dry mouthfeel and medium-high carbonation. This one is even worse than the Angry Goat. Infected? Probably. Maybe not everyone should be barrel aging yet.

I was really excited about this porter ... especially when I saw the ABV - 7.5% - that’s a big porter! It poured dark brown with bubbly off-white head. A roasty aroma with some hints of vanilla. Mouthfeel a bit too bubbly for my tastes for the style. Solid flavor ... roasted oats, definitely a sweet porter with some woodiness from the barrel in the middle and a strong hint of vanilla in the finish. The one odd thing was that it definitely didn’t feel like a 7.5% ... much to light in terms of mouthfeel. Flavor was solid ... but not for a go-to porter. Definitely a nice novelty and a good change of pace from time-to-time.

I received a 12oz bottle from a friend in Ohio (thanks, James!). I poured it into a tulip glass.

Appearance: Dark ruby red to brown color; fine carbonation bubbles are noticeable around the edges. Forms a very large, tan, foamy head which does dissipate but not completely and leaves some lacing on the glass.

Smell: A sour-like smell (in that good Belgian-style way, not in a spoiled way). Noticeable whiskey scent, but not much porter aroma.

Taste: Beers that are aged in whiskey or bourbon barrels tend to be amazing, but in the case of Elevator Horny Goat Porter the result is, oddly enough, just a plain good beer. There’s a lot of whiskey character to this brew for sure - almost a little too much, frankly. A great barrel-aged beer maintains the characteristics of the original brew with the spirit flavor as a complement, but here the whiskey flavor is the star of the show.

The palate is similar to a standard porter, so it’s a sweeter, more fine maltiness than a stout. Some cola-like flavors at the beginning with hints of prune, dark cherry and a slight tartness. It seems to change on a dime as the whiskey taste comes seemingly out of nowhere to smack your tongue. It’s sweet to be sure with just a hint of vanilla and traces of woodiness. Other than that there’s not a lot going on here, it’s the same two flavors repeating ad infinitum. Had this been done as a stout instead of a porter the palate would’ve been more complete and balanced, as there’s a lack of roasty notes and bitterness. The sweetness from the whiskey becomes a little cloying by the end, but at least it retains a flavorful, pleasing taste.

Drinkability: At 7.5% ABV the mouthfeel is rather thin and highly effervescent for a brew of the style and weight. However, the fact there’s noticeable heat and accompanying booze taste and sensation makes this feel like a much bigger brew than it is. Still, Elevator Horny Goat Porter goes down pretty smoothly and finishes mostly clean with just a slight aftertaste of whiskey or vanilla extract. A good after dinner beer on a weeknight, but nothing more special than that.

bottle... pours an ugly watery brown, light watery head... the nose is so generic, cheap whiskey, with a bit of vanilla, not enticing... this doesn’t taste as horrible I was imagining but its not very good, very sweet at first with an ok spirit note with vanilla, however this is so thin its like drinking a glass of bourbon that had all the ice cubes melt... pass

Pours a hazed dark reddish-brown color with a medium beige head that burns away steadily. Partial rings of lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malt, subtle oak and a bit of fruit. Medium body with flavors of roasted coffee and malt, slight bourbon and dark fruit. The finish is slightly boozy with a malt aftertaste. Not as robust as I hoped, decent overall.

12oz bottle received as a trade extra. Now, as most of the world knows, the love affair between me and the -bals has been as heralded throughout history as that between Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Joanie and Chachi. Sometimes though, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, and I’ve HAD IT with this motherf**king barrel in this motherf**king beer! This is a case where the barrel, and especially the whiskey, has gone a bit too far. This beer pours a surprisingly light and clear reddish-brown color with a one-finger light khaki head that lasts. The aroma is all about whiskey and barrel notes, oak and vanilla, with just a touch of roast and caramel. The flavor has a little sweet caramel malt and a load of fairly boozy whiskey flavors and oaky coconut and vanilla. Feels like the brewer took his -bals and slapped you in the face with them. Some people may love that, but it’s not as much for me, although I do appreciate the whiskey flavor. Medium-bodied with decent carbonation for a barrel aged beer (take notes, Tomme Arthur), mild tannins, and a slicker mouthfeel. This is a decent enough beer with some good things about it, but you have to wonder if they cranked up the -bals to 11 to hide a subpar base beer. Definitely a possibility, as the base beer seems like a pale porter without much interesting about it. The Jekyll and Hyde of -bal aged beers, you may love or hate depending on your taste for the -bals.