Epic Portamarillo

Epic Brewing Company (NZ)
Brewed at Steam Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Auckland, New Zealand

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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UPDATED: JUN 4, 2011 Pours a dark ruby brown with a small off white head. Aromas of smoke, coffee, malt and tomatoes. Very unusual beer. Begins with a mild coffee flavour which slowly changes to that of a smokey tomato. Almost a taste of salt in the finish. Palate is very good, nice and creamy. Lingers quite well. Overrall a good attempt at a very interesting beer. Re-rated this because it seems to be better as it gets a little older. Really enjoy this one !

Bottle 500ml. Masterpiece. Aromas of grass, coffee, caramel, and smoke. Taste has a bit of saltiness, and a nice lingering bitterness, which lasts long and finishes dry. Palate is velvety, with a medium-to-full body. Dark brown, with a frothy white head.

Bottle. Dark ruby brown pour with a foamy tan head that lasts. Aroma is roasty, smokey, malty and slightly fruity. Flavour is initially very smokey, ashy even, with a mild fruity suggestion of tomatoes coming after. Light, dry mouthfeel with fine carboination and some bitterness on the finish. Not too bad, but more interesting than completely successful. As an experiment it works but its not something that I would want to drink a lot of.

Bottle. The aroma is smoky. Black as the ace of spades with a small but eternal head. The first taste is all dark malts, burnt toast, astringent, portery. Then smokey notes, not BBQ, think camp-fire and finally a weird fruity aftertaste that can only be the tamarillo. Am I glad I tried this innovative collaboration - you bet!!! Would I drink another one, not on your life.

A Sim rate (one of the epic "Pool Table Tastings" in Rome, thanks to Alex): Very smoky, dark fruit aroma. The flavour is smoke again with wood chips and with a sharp malty finish. I don’t really taste the tomatoes... so much so that I even tried to get Mes to try some.

Dark black in colour with firm off white head. Roasted fruity aroma. Coffeeflavours overpower the tamarillo but leaves silky mouthfeel at end.

Bottle 500ml. @ [ The Pool Tabel Tasting in Rome ].

Clear medium amber color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, sweet malt, smoke - woodcoal ! wood, sweet tomato (grilled tomato), light to moderate hoppy. Flavor is moderate sweet and bitter with a average to long duration, dark malt, wood and strange sweet nees of the grilled tomatos i think ! Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20101219]

Bottle. Clear dark brown with a 1cm beige head. Aroma of chocolate, roasted malt, grass, a hint of smoke and fruit. Taste has moderately astringent fruit (you can feel it on the front of your gums, too), light roast, dark caramel, grassy and roasted bitterness at the end along with a wisp of smoke that grows down the glass. Interesting - the tamarillos do the same job as coffee in terms of astringency but don’t add any round fruitiness. At first I thought it wanted a bit more sweetness and roast, but as the smoke grew I didn’t miss those bass register flavours much at all. If this is the first tamarillo beer, it won’t be the last.

Interesting - has a hint of tamarillo sour/sweet tang and a slight ashy wood smoke component overlaid onto what is a very well balanced porter.

Chestnut brown. great head retention but very soft carbonation on the palate. There is a strong balance of rich smoke up front followed by the sweet then tart fruit feel ending with a raw, woody, char bite. Slight acidic smokeyness on the nose. The smoke is strong enough I wonder how much is malt driven? Interesting and unique, but it’s a one bottle max.