Sea Dog Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter

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

Dark brown, but not substantial-looking, in the glass. Aromas are light malteds, some chocolate candy bar, and a few hops shining through. It is a nutty porter, to be sure, but lots of carbonation and a weedy tinge ruin the effect. Neither smooth nor creamy, this beer has lots of texture and no staying power on the palate. Bitter finish.

Habersham Beverage Warehouse, Savannah, Ga. - 12 oz bottle. Dark brown pour, slight mocha colored head, fades quickly. Artificial aroma, some cotton candy, and some sweet nothingness - artificial butterscotch perhaps. Flavor has some chocolate, some earthy notes, some odd sweetness that is supposed to obviously be hazelnut - but not buying it. Redeems itself with some bitter coffee notes. Thinnish mouthfeel. Had better porters.

Pours dark ruby brown with light tan head. Aroma has roasted malt and rich chocolate. Sea dog has a tendency to smell good and not taste good, so my hopes aren’t up too high. Mouthfeel is silky smooth and fairly light with mild carbonation. Taste is rich with burnt chocolate and hazelnut. Finish has a prickly bitterness from the hops and carbonation. The burnt taste comes out more and more on the finish the further you get down the glass. There is some nice lacing on the glass. All in all a pretty good porter.

12 oz. bottle. This may not be a ’great’ beer, but I really enjoy it. It pours a dark brown with a medium off-white head. Body looks a bit thin. Aroma and flavor are heavy on hazelnut with some hoppy bitterness. Body tastes more robust than it looks. Quite drinkable.

How this is rated so highly is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Knew something was awry by my first sniff. Not my idea of a porter, nor my idea of a good beer. Tastes like scorched hazelnuts to me.

[tap @ Strangebrew 3/31/06] Pours a near black color, with a thin head. Aroma is mostly coffee, slight malts. Flavors are again, mostly roasted coffee and malts- very little hazelnut character to speak of. Not quite what I expected.

26-Mar-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained 22-Jul-05 in trade with jjpm74, thanks John!) "Best enjoyed before Feb ’06". Picked up a second bottle for some reason, so I wasn’t really in much of a hurry to get to it. I typically prefer porters with some age, but the 9 months hasn’t done anything positive for this beer, it’s still a bizarre porter. Moderately roasty, nutty, maybe a little chocolaty, sweet, somewhat buttery, gently bitter, this really does come across more as a nut brown ale than a porter. Nutty aroma shows only a hint of roast though. Medium bodied and very carbonated in the mouth. Medium brown in color and translucent through the center of the glass. Massive, tan head required spooning out to actually get the beer to my lips without getting a face full of foam. A fair amount of lace is left on the glass. Not really liking this as much this time around.

09-Oct-04 (12 oz bottle: Obtained 08-Oct-04 in trade with jasonp, thanks Jason!) An interesting porter to say the least. It’s moderately roasty, lightly sweet, and fairly bitter, but the hazelnut adds enough flavor that this beer is bordering on a very bold nut brown. Overall, very nicely balanced. The palate is pretty creamy and rich, coating the mouth fully. The nose is coffee, sweet chocolate and hazelnut, but I swear the hazelnut aroma reminds me of some sort of vegetable/root like maybe parsnips or something. Deep mahogany in color, but not so dark that you can’t see through the beer. Tan head only rises to about half-an-inch thick on the pour, but maintains a solid layer, even as I continue to take sips from the glass. Unfortunately, the pretty, long-lasting head is unable to deposit much lacing on the glass at all. (7, 4, 7, 4, 14 = 3.6)

Dark brown with some ruby tints. Light cocoa aroma accompanied by buttery and toasty hazelnuts. Bitter roasty coffee flavors with some light hazelnut and hint of licorice in the finish. Not bad.