Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Smoked
Ithaca, New York USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

Really nice woody oak, burning branches aroma. Big deep roasty flavor with plenty of appealing smoke notes..Not overly smokey, but a goood amount to keep it balanced with backing sweet malt. Tobacco leaves, coffee, oak in the flavor again. Really smooth and luscious mouthfeel. This is very good.

Aroma is a sweet smoked malt. Taste is a strong smokey chocolate. Overall a nicely balanced example of the style.

I poured a 12oz bottle into a tulip glass.

Appearance: Mostly opaque midnight black with ruby red hues around the edges. Forms a small, dark tan, creamy head which completely dissolves and leaves no lacing.

Smell: All smoke with hints of milk chocolate and roasted barley.

Taste: The palate to Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter comes in three distinct stages: sweetness, smokiness, and sweetness again. For a moment there it’s like a cherry cola, then it transitions to dry woody smoke flavor. Not so much bacon as it is the smoke itself (like standing over a campfire when you’ve thrown some birch bark in to it). The initial sweetness returns with a noticeable milk chocolate candy-like taste. Not much hop presence or bitterness to speak of, which is fine because the smoke character plays that role here.

As I drink on I notice this beer is indeed a typical porter with a taste that hints of dairy and what I call a "cough medicine" flavor. The smokiness fades a little and all the flavors homogenize into a very interesting palate of bitter dark chocolate without rich, sugary, cloying qualities.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied all around, but it seems to become tepid rather quickly. Although there is a subtle milk chocolate aftertaste that’s mildly dry but completely tolerable.

Drinkability: I didn’t know the ABV of Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter going into it, and estimated it at under 6% due to the lack of boozy qualities and the relatively thin, lighter body. It turns out it’s 7.5% ABV, which is impressive since it doesn’t seem to have the weight (or energy level) of that big of a beer. It’s very smooth going down and versatile enough that you could pair it with any kind of BBQ food or just enjoy it as a dessert beer.

On tap at Blind Tiger. Pours a dark black color with a caramel colored head. Aroma of caramel and heavy smoke. Sweet smoke flavor with some caramel mixed in and chocolate notes on the finish. Very smokey.

Picked up mix and match sixer at brewery but this is only rate. Pours deep brown with roasted nose. Tastes of cocoa, wood, and root beer. It’s pretty smokey without being over poweringly so. Quite good

Red tinged black body with a nice loopy lacing light tan quarter inch cover. Aroma is lots and lots of burnt tar smoke, some meat elements, but mostly charcoal, smoldering campfire, ash, light roast. For as potent as the aroma is, it does not translate to the taste. There is some char, light ash, and roast, but it isn’t altogether pleasant. The mouthfeel is light and prickly. I’m having a hard time putting my finger on it, but this smoke is just not what I want in a smoke beer.

Smoky, roasty flavor. Smells kind of like chicory. Very dark brown with a small head. Flavorful and intense.

Guest tap at Empire Brewing, Syracuse. Thick complex smoke well integrated with dark porter. Just short of burnt parts. Good drinkability.