Sea Dog Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter

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

Damn near porter season. Love the richer and higher ABV offerings of the winter season but know the easy evenings sitting in the backyard looking over the freshly mowed grass are severely numbered. Sea Dog offers a damn fine porter with a powerful mouthfeel that leans a tad more heavily to the nuttier side of the toasted malt, mocha and coffee flavorings. Carbonation isn’t in short supply and carries this rich brew through the tasting. You are left with a coffee flavored hop fizz. Nice zesty offering from Sea Dog.

Very surprised with this beer. Distinct hazelnut flavor that complements the coffee and malt that you taste. Goes down smooth and leaves a nice taste in your mouth.

Bottle from EDA. Deep chestnut colored. Fair tannish head with good lacing left behind. Bits of hazelnut and coffee in aroma. Medium light bodied with perhaps an excess of carbonation. Just a hint of smoke in flavor with lots of nuts and chocolate. Fair, seems a bit artificial at times.

Well, the beer does look okay, but that’s where the accolades are going to have to end. Dunkin Donuts really should consider suing Sea Dog for stealing their hazelnut coffee recipe. I swear, they must use exactly the same artificial-tasting hazelnut syrup. Speaking of coffee, anyone claiming to detect COFFEE in the flavor of this beer has obviously been buying their morning brew at gas stations for too long to know what a real cup of coffee tastes like, minus the chemical additives that is. This ain’t coffee. It is crap though. This brings us to a very important lesson. If you drink real beer, you should also be drinking real coffee, eating real food and driving a real car. Flavored coffee is for sissies and this beer is terrible!

Dark, almost opaque with a fair sized head. Smell of coffee and nuts, slightly sweet. Very tasty and well balanced, with some sweetness at first and dry roasted bitterness at end. Smooth on the palate. Glass ends up empty long before you intend it to be that way. Quality brew.

Dark brown/black. Disappearing tan head. Nutty aroma with malt basis. The name says it all. Nutty, roasty, malty. Medium body. Pretty good.

On tap at the brew-pub. Pours a dark brown color with ruby highlights and a thin light brown head. Aroma and flavor of coffee and hazelnuts. Light body, soft carbonation. The flavors are interesting but they lack intentsity.

Pours and settles as a deep caramel brown, opaque in the center and hued along the edges. Copious foam with a booming tan head. Aroma reveals a nutty persona, accented by caramel, cocoa beans, toffee chews and hazelnut coffee syrup. Dry dark chocolate bars begin the flavor transition, along with caramel and hazelnuts for sweetener. Very reminiscent of a good gas station’s hazelnut flavored coffee. Dry, lively and a little syrupy sweetness that lingers on the palate. Carbonation is a little much and some rustic water qualities spring up from time to time. Finishes like that gas station coffee. Thanks to tpkenned for the bottle.