Portsmouth Le Chat Noir

22oz bomber. Plenty of expressive Belgian yeast melded with roasted malt on the nose. Chocolate covered bananas. Evidence of fairly heavily roasted malt, but the yeast esters tone that back a bit. A touch of cold press. Slightly leathery, but really quite a fruity nose. Pours out of the bottle dark brown and nearly pitch in the glass with a short lived dark khaki head. Dry with a rather unexpressive malt profile on the tongue. Some fruitiness lingers around... but the dry toasted malt seems to take center stage. A slight hint of some earthy (and almost dirty) hops. Bitter bakers chocolate. Bitter and bland malt profile. Medium to light bodied. Good carbonation. Finishes dry, astringent and short. The Belgian yeast works rather well for the aroma, but leaves me wanting quite a bit more when it comes to the flavor. Thanks a ton for this rare treat Tom!

22 oz bottle purchased at the brewpub. Served in my Smuttynose snifter. This was a delicious unique offering from Portsmouth. Their Black Cat Stout brewed with Belgian yeast. Pours a pitch black with very little head & zero lacing. Mouthfeel was dry & dead flat. I marked off a couple points because it was so flat. Could have used a bit of carbonation. Taste was a combination of a stouts chocolate/malt flavors as well as a Belgians spiceyness/wheat flavor. Interesting experiment. I hope they do it again next year.

The bartender was nice enough to go grab me one of these from the cask downstairs it arrived in my Imperial pint glass at cellar temp with a wonderful rich frothy head on top of a jet black body This cask was dry hopped with Cascade hops so the aroma was a little bit hoppier on this one. You also get the nice Belgian yeast as well. Along with the roasted malts and coffee aromas You get the same roasted malts and smokiness but the flavor’s of coffee and chocolate is more pronounce in the cask version most likely due to the hop bitter as well. The Belgian yeast tends to make this a little sweater than the regular black cat at the start a nice change up on the style The mouthfeel is great from the cask as well full and rich just the way I like my stouts Highly drinkable stout, very much a session brew I think the experiment with the Belgian yeast was a success