If you haven’t read my article on Brown’s Brewing, do so first for some background. After you have done that, you can listen to my little rant…

Why do all porters have to be so smoky? I’m ok with some roasted flavors, smoky notes, and even wood characteristics… but WHY WHY WHY do all porters seem to want to taste like an ash tray???

Come on people, the porter style should be a hoppy beer. The definition for an English robust porter specifically states “These porters have a sharp bitterness of black malt without a highly burnt/charcoal flavor”, and “hop bitterness should be medium to high.” At least Stone tells you that they intend to make it smokey.

My all time favorite porter is made locally at the Brown’s Brewery, though they only brew it on occasion these days. The only bottled porter I have ever had the pleasure of is the Big Indian Porter by Woodstock Brewery in Woodstock, New York. Outside of those porters, there has never been a porter I have loved. I have tried Sierra Nevada’s, Stovepipe, Sam Adams, Saranac, Fuller’s… the list goes on and on and I don’t like any of them (much). They all have something I find that takes away from the beer just being beer.

I’ve recently had a Planet Porter from Boulder Brewing and it was chalky and sooty like the majority out there. The sad part is that I could taste a decent beer underneath all that, but it was destroyed by the roast/burnt/smoke.

Can anyone, PLEASE, recommend me a porter that tastes like beer??? I’m looking for malt, hops and yeast; nothing else. And I want it strong, not in alcohol, but in flavor, like porter should be. Malt, hops and yeast.

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