Sea Dog Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter

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

Bottle - A dark brown color with a thin head. Aroma of coffee and chocolate. Flavor is decent with chocolate, nuts and coffee. Too thin and watery for me to really enjoy.

Well-laced diminishing light brown head over a deep bronze body. Aroma of almond skin, ashes, dark chocolate and maybe even cedar wood, quite original and pleasant altogether if not too intense. Taste is mostly on the sweet side, mild roasty aspect and hazelnut/honey flavor. Easy to drink with a light acidity that doesn't appear out of place, but generally a bit too watery and mineralic from my perspective.

In the bottle from HyVee CB. Pours very dark sepia brown to black with a tan overflowing head. Strong aromas of hazelnut and roasted malt. Flavor is a sweet vanilla, licorice and dominant hazelnut. Finish is far too sweet and the beer lacks a bit of body as well as some balancing hops.

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)

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.

My bottle’s label comes bereft of "Riverdriver Hazelnut," but it does add "with hazelnut flavor added," so I’m assuming it’s the same brew. The aroma is a lightly roated malt with a touch of vanilla and a bit of nutty bitterness. Pretty smooth to drink, the roasted taste comes out stronger and the flavor of the hazelnut extract makes itself known. Mildly bitter, toasty finish. This is a good session Porter.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/map/686.a Joe’s, Orland Park, IL<font size=-1>

Bottle. Pours a black color with a longlasting tan head. Has a malty nutty hazelnut aroma with some hints of coffee. Roasted malty chocolate flavor with some nutty hazelnut hints. Has a roasted malty chocolate finish with some nutty hints in the aftertaste.

Pours a clear, dark mahogany (more red than brown) with a khaki head that is thick but appears a little oily when it settles. Aroma of chocolaty breakfast cereals (like Cocoa Puffs and Cocoa Krispies) before a stronger roastiness pushes through. Flavor also finds a background of chocolate, but the fore is all burnt and nutty tasting. Could be hazelnut... hard to tell.

<font size=-4>Single 12 oz. bottle from <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/><a href=http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html>Tr Joe’s, Orland Park, IL 60462</font>