When Two Brothers make a porter ale, it’s excellent.  I had one in a restaurant that featured local brews – a German place deep within Chicagoland suburbia – and that was the beer which set me down this porter rabbit hole I’ve been exploring.

So here I find a beautiful 1 pint 6 ounce bottle of Two Brothers COFFEE porter – a black ale brewed with coffee beans.  Coffee?  And porter ale?

It’s almost like they brewed it especially for me.

You can smell deep roasted dark malt but no coffee.  First sip, though – COFFEE.  Yes indeed, and lots of it.  Of all the coffee ales I’ve tasted, this one tastes the most like coffee.  Really strong black coffee.

Mixed with beer.

I like it but I wouldn’t say I love it – not like I loved their regular porter.  It’s not sweet enough for my sweet tooth, and its not hoppy enough to account for its bitterness.

It’s a good one-off novelty drink.  Fun at a party.  But it’s not an all-night swilling ale.  So…

I’ll call it groovy, not holy.  Good, but not over-the-top.  A fun experiment.

Worth trying.

Especially if you love strong black coffee.

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Hoppin’ Frog Brewing Company of Akron, Ohio dares to call this a smooth Porter.

It may technically be a Porter, and it is somewhat hoppy, but it’s not what I would call “silk” smooth.

I know I’m kind of jumping the gun here, but I’ve been drinking some extremely good Porters lately, and this isn’t one of them.  If it didn’t actually say “Porter” on the label I never would have guessed that is what it is supposed to be.

Being that Porters have a distinctive flavor, this doesn’t bode well for Hoppin’ Frog’s brews.  It’s the first one of theirs I’ve tried and it may well be the last.

To be fair: compared to most mortal beers, those mass produced in giant factories squeaking with mechanical parts and puffing with steam, this would by comparison blow them away.  It starts off with a mild but distinct hoppy bite, quickly subdued by toasted malts and then a swelling of muted caramel.  A final note of bitterness finishes the taste, which – again, by industrial brew standards, would be smooth – and then the palate is left somewhat clear, and ready for the next.

Were this a cheap beer (which it isn’t) I would cut it quite a bit of slack.  But since I paid a good chuck of cash for it, I won’t.

It’s good but not groovy, and definitely not a Holy Beer Contender.

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I picked up one of these “giant economy size” variety packs from my new favorite local brewery, Two Brothers, in Warrenville IL.

It was actually quite cheap when you factor out the $25,000 return deposit on the carton.

Hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful 4th of July!

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It’s another Polish Porter on my plate!

Right up front I’ll say I don’t like this one as much as I did the Okocim.  It’s not as smooth nor as sweet.  But unlike the other, Zywiec seems to have some hops in it.  It tastes of robust, burnt rye, black roasted malts, caramel syrup, and toasted wheat.

And hops.  There are definitely hops in this one.  They give it a sharp, bitter ping right up front, fading to a hint of clove and a clamoring background of more hops bitterness.  The burnt malt taste rises somewhere in the middle of this, cresting with a sweetness, before falling back to the bitter.

A complex taste, yes.  And I don’t like the hint of clove.

Clove does not belong in beer.

That’s my opinion.

Had I not been already spoiled by the Okocim I would probably have rated this Porter higher, but as it stands I would still mark it down as a Holy Beer Contender, but only give it maybe a 5.6 on the Holy Grail Scale.

I mean, it’s still good.  No, still delicious.  Even with the hint of clove.

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It’s nearly midnight on a Saturday as I write this.  Thunderstorms have been rolling across the Chicagoland area.  The windows have stopped lighting up, but I still hear the occasional distant rumble.

Earlier tonight I’d had one of the best Porters ever, and this one, this St. Peter’s Old-Style, I hadn’t even intended to review.  I thought I had done so already.  A long time ago.

Nope, it was St. Peter’s delicious Cream Stout that I’d reviewed.

Popping the top, I take that first sniff.  Not much there.  Yeasty tinge on muted burnt malts.  Whatever.  I tip it up for the taste.

For a Porter, this one is hoppy.  That’s what hits first, a manic dog-bite hoppiness with zero carbonation, fading to a black burnt-grain malt sunset.

Probably because of the over-the-top wonderfulness of the Baltic Porter I had earlier, this one is disappointing.  That, and I remembered how much I’ve enjoyed their Cream Stout.

It’s good, it’s perfectly drinkable.  I’m enjoying it.  Let’s be fair here, it’s a good beer.  It’s just not amazing or outstanding, and therefore, alas, not a Holy Beer contender.

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