Stone Smoked Porter

smells like a campfire or burning cedar mixed with a mild sweet odor. is a very dark, somewhat translucent brown with beige head. tastes fairly sweet and has a very intense smoky flavor, imagine the comment i made about a campfire, then imagine eating that campfire. feels very thin in my mouth though, which is a bit of a disappointment i like my porters and stouts to have a little thicker viscosity. pretty good nonetheless.

A great looking beer, pours almost like a Guinness...my goodness! Needs to be accompanied with a T-bone steak. Pretty overwhelming smokiness mid-palate, but it has a smooth finish. Don’t know why such a good brewery is in San Diego, I lived there for 3 years, and almost everybody drinks heineken or corona, heathens. However, I have always got good head in SD ;) Buy it at World Market, and save $2.

(bottle from Powers Liquor Mart in Colorado Springs). Pours a black color. Medium size tan head. Light smoky aroma. Malty and smoky flavor. Avg duration. Slightly astringent finish. Watery texture. Fair lacing. Moderate carbonation.

22oz bottle. Pours a very dark brown, almost black body with some red tints around the edges. Thick and foamy, two-finger width, light brown colored head that dissipates slowly and leaves a lot of nice layered lacing. Solid aroma with lots of sweet brown malts and a nice fruity, soft roasty smell. Smokey, but more like a honey ham smoke than straight up smoked ham. It definitely accompanies the rest of the beer. Some sweet chocolates and licorice with just a splash of coffee. Flavor is very similar. Sweet malts and dry backing of roast and smoke. Initially a lot of sweet caramels and fruity malts with a slow developing hop bitterness. Some chocolates come in as well as more dark fruits before the smoke and roast come in to completely dry this sucka out. Not a big aftertaste, but a solid echo of chocolate, caramel, and smoke. Palate is soft, very balanced, and medium bodied. Overall, a damn good beer. Solid all around. Not a very intense hoppy/roasty porter, but I love when smoked beers have balance like this and the smoke accompanies the flavors rather than dominating them. Excellent.

Very dark, with a bittersweet chocolate color. The light beige head is thin but long lasting. Dark sweet malts are the primary aroma to this beer. There’s a chaulkiness to the smell. Any hop takes a back seat to the chocolate malt. Surprisingly, there is little smokiness to the aroma. First impression is the fullness of the body--more than would normally be expected. Chocolate malt is the predominant flavoring. That said, there is a soft hop balance that lingers in the aftertaste. The "smoke" appears in the swallow, briefly. This is another complex and interesting beer from Stone. I don’t rank it as high as some of their other beers, but it is certainly superior to many of the available porters.

Bottle from local shop. Poured very deep brown with foamy yellow head. Very earthy smoke flavor. Slightly sweet malty finish, almost like a cola.

From a bottle poured dark brown with a good amount of head. Nice smokey malty flavor with a lasting finish.

Tried this in the past and seem to recall enjoying it more, not sure quite why. As advertised, it’s chocolaty and slightly smoky. Seems to have a thick, sticky mouthfeel and is a bit weak. (Of course, my palate has already been violated by a Ruination, so that might be affecting my rating.)