Telegraph Unblended Barrel Reserve Porter

Sampled during the First Annual Stone Sour Fest. Dark brown with a tan head. Aromas were roasty chocolate with some sour notes. Flavors were classic porter dust. Not very sour actually, and a slightly bitter finish. Pretty good.

On tap at Stone. Pours blackish w/ minimal lacing. I thought this was aged in a whiskey barrel from the aroma and the flavor. Smells like an old malted whiskey barrel w/ some vegetation. Surprisingly light nectar w/ minimal residual effers. It’s almost flat. Flavors are unusual and as I said before exhibits whiskey overtones. It is quite complex but not real enjoyable. The sour character is defined and so is the oak w/ no detectable sweetness at all.. Other nuances of a floral perfume, vegetation, slight black cherry w/ a mild roast component. The finish has the hallmark souring and leaves the palate a bit confused.

Sampled on tap at the First Annual Stone Sour Fest, July 2007
This beer has quite a funky nose to it; it is so funky it seems almost unintentional. The aroma is lightly tart, yet has caramel and toasted malt notes to it. It has a funky mustiness to it and almost a leather-like quality to it as well. The head has some good staying power and is light brown colored. The body of the beer is a hazy brown color.

The taste is dry, yet it still has quite the brown ale profile; notes of toasted malt, caramel, browned, biscuit like grain and a light burnt soda cracker flavor. This beer in some way is clean compared to other sour beers here today, yet it still has a light tartness and even an underlying funkiness that some of the other sour beers have not had. This has a phenolic note that is almost plastic like and is a bit hot. This is actually a bit unbalanced as the phenolics seem to dominate the flavor profile after a bit. The brown grain character seems to accentuate the phenolics at times too.

This definitely seems unintentionally funky to me; it doesn’t quite work, but was still worth a try. The flavors are interesting (especially the combination of dark malts and funk), though a bit harsh in the end.

On tap at Stone. Very dark brown with no head. Chocolate malt aroma. Chocolate and roasted malt taste with oak notes and a clean finish.

Sampled at the 1st annual Stone Sour Festival 2007. A barrel reserve porter that is sour? Wierd. but not bad. Different for sure.