Sea Dog Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter

Brewed by Sea Dog Brewing (Shipyard Brewing Co.)
Style: Porter
Topsham, Maine USA

This is a pleasant, highly drinkable, light porter with a definite but thankfully mild hazelnut element. It is a very dark red brown with a very big tan head that slowly dissipates to a small head leaving some lacing. The aroma is mostly hazelnut with a little toasted malt, coffee, chocolate. The taste at 1st is hazelnuts but this mellows quickyl to a light hazelnut element on a toasted malt base with hints of coffee and chocolate, a good sweet-bitter balance. It has a fairly oily palate, especially when it warms. Overall it is light and mild for a porter but it is a little different, smooth, and easy to drink and not to hazelnutty.

12oz bottle-Dark brown with a nice tan head which has an aroma of roasted malt and hazelnut. A light mouthful with a taste of hazelnut, malt, hops, and a dryness on the back end. Very light and watered down for a porter almost should be a nut brown. Not a bad beer but has potential to be better.

bottle poured into a snifter is a black in color with little head or lacing. aroma of malt, sweet hazelnut, reminds me of that hazelnut coffee creamer. mouth feel is on the lighter side and the taste is malt with a sweet chocolate hazelnut and finishes with hops bitter on the dry side. the hazelnut is artificial smelling but the bottle labels it natural hazelnut flavor added perhaps a mix of both but it adds something i personally like. better than my expectations were for this one.

pours a dark red-brown with an explosive, foamy tan head. A smokey, hazelnut odor. Taste starts off hazelnut, and ends with a nice mix of bitter hops and malts. An interesting beer- I’d get this again.

Pours out deep red with a thick off white head. Roasted coffee and hazelnut aroma. Very smooth tasting with a hint of coffee, chocolate malt and hazelnut. Nice carbonation and dry aftertaste. Very refreshing.

Has a significantly more intense hazelnut character in the aroma than does the Rogue Brown Nectar. I only wish the rest of the beer was as nice as the aroma. The flavor isn’t big; it’s not even all that much there, actually. I’m just not picking up much at all, besides some hazelnut. Odd sensation to put it down: fast-fillng in the gut, combined with a hard watery (maybe salty, even) mouthfeel with the hazelnut really hitting in the back of the throat to a drying effect. This one’s riding a lot on the hazelnut, which is the make-it-or-break-it factor.

dark brown body, clear but thick, frothy lacey tan head, hazelnut nose, sweet syrupy, sweet flavor, malty, not roasty or bitter, candy brown ale stance, not really a porter at all, your girlfriend will like it (unless she’s as cool as mine)

12 oz bottle. Pours dark amber brown with beige head. The aroma is almost identical to a hazelnut coffee that’s heavy on the hazelnut flavoring. The flavor is, hrm, cold hazelnut coffee. There are a few malty tones and hints of woody hops, but that’s about it. Pretty straightforward here.