Beers in Review: Porters

When did life get so complicated? Back when I wanted to save money, I’d spend less and put more in the bank. Now there’s Roth IRAs, 401Ks, mutual funds and CDs. I look at the financial industries and I find it all so artificial, so fake. Whatever happend to a hard day’s pay for a hard day’s work? Whatever happened to getting your hands dirty and living off the land? Everything is so “push button” these days. I wish I could say I was the exception but I’m not. I guess that’s the problem.

*Sigh*

Now that’s out of the way, I can get back to what makes me smile: beer. In this week’s Beer in Review segment, I will be reviewing Porters. Porters are dark colored ales supposedly named after the beer popular with 18th century London street and river porters. The history of the porter is credited to a John Feltham who had written that it was an attempt to recreate a beverage known as three threads which was a blend of an ale, a beer and a twopenny.

Much closer to reality was that porters were the first beers that were mass produced. These were the first beers that were aged by the brewers, instead of the pub owners or dealer, and could be drunk immediately from the brewer. Porters were relatively strong for their times. Single Stout Porters, Double Stout Porters, Triple Stout Porters and Imperial Stout Porters were brewed with increasing strength, respectively. Eventually the porter suffix was dropped altogether and stouts were born.

Porters versus Stouts

This is a question that I am often asked. From a very general and historic standpoint, stouts were stronger than porters. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two. In this case, the devil is in the details and the details are in the ingredient list. While both beers use a wide variety of dark and roasted malts interchangeably, stouts go a step further through the use of pale malts. Stouts also differ from porters through the use of adjuncts to increase the complexity of the beverage. Some of the adjuncts include but shouldn’t be limited to: flaked, unmalted barley, sour beers, lactose, oatmeal, sugar, maize or treacle; depending on the style of the beer. I invite other homebrewers or professional brewers to chime in and share their thoughts on the differences.

Point Reyes Porter, Marin Brewing Company, 6.0% ABV

Marin Brewing Company (MBC) is located in Larkspur, California. Head brewer and general partner Brendan Moylan runs both MBC and her sister brewery, Moylans Brewery & Grill. Even though MBC is located relatively close to where I live, I have never been there. Hopefully that will change sometime this week. Despite never having been to their physical location, MBC beers are relatively easy to find as my local BevMo carries a wide variety of their beers on bottle. This particular bottle was given to me by Pete Slosberg during his last Beer Depletion Party (thanks, Pete!).

Point Reyes Porter pours out a very, very dark brown and opaque beer with a short lasting brown head. The aroma is a combination of deep roasted malts, espresso and chocolate with a slight sour undertones. The flavor of the beer echos that of the aroma: there’s a deep roasted malt flavor with a hint of burnt malt underneath. There’s some chocolate undertones as well. The bitterness of the beer is a combination of the hops and from the grains. This is a medium-full/full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation. There’s a slight tannic astringency that manifests itself as a dryness on the sides of my tongue and on the roof of my mouth.

I am enjoying the Point Reyes Porter. I am finding that it’s flavorful and robust yet pretty easy drinking. The sourness I noticed before is all but gone in subsequent tastings. Once glance at all the medals on the label will tell you that other people have enjoyed this beer as well. Closer scrutiny will reveal that most of these wins occured in the late 90s through the early 2000s. Just nitpicking.

Coconut Porter, Maui Brewing Company, 5.7% ABV

Maui Brewing Company has earned themselves a solid reputation. I first heard of them on a podcast on the way home from Fresno. After listening to Maui Brewing Company founder Garrett Marrero talk so passionately about what he was doing, I promised myself to try some of their beers as soon as they hit State side. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait long as BevMo picked them up.

Coconut Porter pours out a very dark brown with a huge, tan head and, if you can catch ‘em, ruby highlights. Toasted coconut aromas waft up from my glass with chocolate undertones, hints of coffee and a deeply roasted malt aroma. The flavor of this beer is amazing and complex; there’s the rich, roasted malt flavors, a huge chocolate component and the roasted coconut all playing well together but are still noticeable as individuals. In a way, this beer reminds me of an Almond Joy, if they’d only roast the coconut before adding the chocolate. Coconut Porter is medium/medium-high in body with medium-high carbonation.

As you no doubt noticed, the beer came in a can. Maui Brewing does a poor job of stating on their website why they can their beer, good thing it’s written right on the can itself. Let me paraphrase:

• Can eliminate light damge and reduce the risk of oxidation
• Cans are lighter and chill faster. Aluminum is the most recycled material

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