I recently ranted about my pet peeve about porters and it received some noteworthy attention from our readers.

One such comment by Med was seconded by KevBrews to suggest that a good porter, which was agreed upon that they are difficult to find commercially, is Bell’s Brewery and Southern Tier. I checked my two favorite local distributors and could not find Bell, but I did get a six pack of Southern Tier Porter.

Before tasting, I looked up the Southern Tier in an old database that Al and I used to keep up to date with the beers we had at Octoberfest along with our ratings. On a scale of 1-4, I had given the Southern Tier a 2.0 and Al gave it a 2.5. So, we had concluded back then that it was good, but not necessarily anything to write home about. That was back in 2004.

Have my tastes and opinions changed? Not too much. I originally thought this beer to be good, and I still do, perhaps more so. I can definitely see where this can be classified as one of the few commercially available porters to not be overpoweringly bitter with roasted malts. You CAN taste the hop bitterness, and you can taste some sweet malt. It is still not what I would consider the perfect porter, but it is definitely more inline with what I like.

On the old review scale, I would definitely move this brew up to 2.5, if not 3.0. On the unofficial Hop-Talk rating, it would get about a 4, since I can see myself making this my regular porter of choice.

While out shopping, I also grabbed a six pack of the Saranac Caramel Porter. Stayed tuned for a review on that brew.