Stone Smoked Porter

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Porter
Escondido, California USA

Dark brown in colour. Aroma is smokey, malty, slightly sweet. Flavour is slightly malty, bitter, roasty, some smoke. Finishes malty with medium bitterness.

Pours a rich dark brown with nice tan head. Aroma has roated chocolate and coffee notes. There is some smoke on the aroma, but it is not very heavy. Medium to full bodied beer - slick and velvety mouthfeel with soft carbonation. Starts out with a creamy roastedness, then some charred malts and coffee. The finish has roastedness and some smoke, but mainly bingling bitter hops. Further down the beer some chocolate starts coming out. A good beer for what it is.

Draft/updated with 22 oz bottle - Pours black with a nice, long lasting head. Enjoyable aroma of roast malt and hops. Very mild smokiness in the roasted malt flavor. The hops are noticeable, but frankly not as much as I’d expect from a Stone brew. My experience with some porters is that they taste a bit short on hops. Stone gets it right in that sense.

Bottle: Poured a deep dark black brown with a creamy thick loight brown head. The aroma was smokey with sweet malt characteristics. The taste filled my mouth with that dark smokey malt, the suttle coffee hints along with chocolate made my mouth water for every sip. Stone has yet to let me down!

On tap at the Bocktown. My very first stone. Pour is nice and dark brown black with a tinge of red in there. Initially has a large tan head that fades to a darkish tan froth. Aroma is less than expected for a smoked brew. It does have some mild roastyness about it but I don’t think it can be called smoked. Hints of hickory smoking. Nice lacing on this stuff. It has some medium bitterness in the back of the throat after you get to know it. That bitterness builds as the drinks continue. Decent, just slightly bellow medium carboatiion. That back of your throat bitterness continues to build with each taste. Not bad for a porter but the smokey bitterness makes this a little more interesting than a straight porter with gentleman manners.

I am rather finicky about smoked beers. Sampled on draft at the State College beer festival this beer poured a black color with a large tan head. The aroma is mild roasty malts. The body is rather light. The flavor is wood smoke with light roasty malts. The smoke dominates and lingers. Not remotely subtle. Not my style at all.

This filled the glass with a rich black brew and a substantial creamy tan head. It comes on more like a Stout than a Porter to me and the flavor profile is dominated by the sharpness contributed by roasted/peated barley. This brew has some aspects of a Stout rather than a Porter, and if you are a Stout lover who doesn't care for Porters, then you will probably enjoy this one. A good beer, but I was a little disappointed. I expected something different mostly.

Surprisingly slight aroma, just a touch of woody smoke and notes of cocoa, roasty malt and toffee. Deep brown-black color, mahogany highlights with a rather slight head. Flavor is roasty to start, the middle seeing a dose of chocolatey sweetness, and with a very mildly bitter, toasty, coffeeish finish. Medium bodied, palate is creamy, effervescent. Tasty Porter rendition, not so smoky ultimately. Thanks to Falconseye8 for the bottle.