Porters are great beers to have during a fall evening sitting outside in a sweatshirt sharing beers with friends. In this vein, I have the Lucky 7 Porter from Evolution Craft Brewing Co. which gets its name from the 7 “lucky” malts that it is brewed with. That should make this a fairly complex, malt forward beer.
Michael Jackson’s (no, not him, the beer writer) Rare Beer Club has introduced me to stellar beers in the past and this month’s selection was no exception. Available only at the brewery and to members of the RBC, Cigar City puts a spin on their standard José Martí India Porter by aging this one on French Oak Spirals. If there is one brewery that knows how to utilize spiral aging properly, Cigar City would be it.
Many things come from Hawaii: our current president, Kona coffee, and also beer. You wouldn’t expect to find dark heavy beers in the land of sunshine and beaches but that is certainly not the case. From Maui Brewing Company comes the CoCoNut PorTer, which (according to the can) is “like hot chicks on the beach.” I like hot chicks on the beach, so hopefully I like this beer as well.
Coffee beers can run the gambit from just a hint of coffee to a full blown in your face espresso. The balance of malt and coffee is key. I believe the perfect coffee beer is a 50/50 mix of roasted malt and coffee essence with neither overpowering the other. The Philadelphia Brewing Company Joe Coffee Porter is brewed using locally roasted fair trade coffee — hopefully they let the coffee stand on its own and chose malts that balanced well with it.
My opinion of Bell’s Brewery is that if they brew it, I’ll drink it and I’ll probably enjoy it. Spotting a six pack of their Porter at a local convenience store (a convenience store with craft beer, hells yeah) on a rainy day, I had to give it a go. Porters, being so similar to Stouts, are up there in terms of style for me. They normally consist of some good roasted malt elements and have a bit of hoppyness, though this can vary.
