Port Brewing Santas Little Helper

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Imperial Stout
San Marcos, California USA

22 oz bottle. Had with Gabe and accompanied by herring, Mordier and Limberger cheeses, onions, caraway seeds and rye bread. Pours a coffee colored head over an utterly opaque body.....nose of coffee, chocolate, fruits, ? fig, ? raisin....taste is initially sweet then goes toward bitter coffee, cocoa, with lingering bitterness but not as heavy as west coast styles. and is more English in character....good mouth feel, rather sticky in/on the glass.

Time for a Christmas Stout, a 2008 Santa’s Little Helper from Port Brewing, and the first beer from them in awhile. It is, of course, a completely colorless beer, sucking the color out of it’s immediate surroundings, and topped with a portobello mushroom colored brown-gray head. Despite being an imperial stout, and left to fit into the comfort of room temperature, the aroma is suppressed, with hints of raisin, coffee, cinnamon and maybe even a little gingerbread, though it is possible that the holiday accoutrements have affected my sensory faculties. Also, it reeks of teriyaki sauce, both sweet and salty. It starts sweet, especially with heavy shots of cinnamon. Then it switches to a brief period of pure, dry spiciness before moving into a second sweet phase, and then at last an appreciably dry aftertaste. The taste vacillates between spicy, sweet and dry, giving alternate credit to coffee, cinnamon and chocolate flavors, sharpened by a serious ABV value. Good for Christmas - it’s heavy and large, like all meals have been in the last week, with the caloric intake to match, but doesn’t stand out as one of the eminent stouts in my collection.

really didnt pick up anything from this beer to push it over the top. Just a stout with some chocolate and a slight hop presence. The bottle I had was cellered for a year but kept at a consistent 45 degrees . Nothing to really push the beer to a 98 rating a pretty basic stout..

Pours pitch black. Little head. Taste is of raisin and chocolate. Sweet initial taste with a roasted finish. Hops. Very thick. Very nice.

Black with a brown-grey head. Roasted aroma with raisins and dades on top. The flavour is quite sweet to begin with, almost sugarish with a present alcohol feeling. Then the bitter hops make themselves present and finishes the impression.

So rich and thick and wonderfully hoppy. This is west coast imperial stout at its finest. Surprised its only around at Christmas - does not seem too much like a seasonal holiday offering. Glad to find it though! Black as coal. Yup.

2008. Pours thick, black sludgelike no head. Coffee, alcohol and chocolate dominate the nose. Taste is chocolate, malty and roasted grains, not sweet. A bit weak and watery on the palate, but bonus points for a long, lingering chocolate aftertaste.

Bottle (2008): pours a dark black with a frothy tan head, aroma of coffee, chocolate, malt, taste is bitter coffee and chocolate, full mouthfeel which I always like in a stout, some vanilla in the finish and some slight bitterness from the hops. Very nice.