Quick Sips: Founders Porter

There are a few core styles that simply must be explored and appreciated by any self-respecting beer geek, and without question porter is one of them. The origins of stout lie in porter, and porter itself has a rich, impressive history that is sometimes ignored in today's rush for sour beers and hop bombs.

Thankfully there are lots of porters out there. Some are pretty mediocre, some are quite good -- and then there is Founders Porter, one of the very best on the market. It gets a perfect 100 at ratebeer.com for a reason.

Pouring a brown so deep it might as well be black, the frothy tan head kicks up aromas of chocolate, toffee, and a hint of coffee, and the taste is pure bliss. You know that “ooooh” sound some people make when they bite into a rich chocolate cake? Yeah, it’s like that.

The label describes the beer as “Dark, Rich and Sexy,” and that’s about right. This is pure sex in a glass. Drinking it in public feels like an indecent act. But if indecency is wrong, I don’t want to be right

Honestly, if you even remotely like porters, GET THIS BEER NOW.

NOTE: Portions of this post originally appeared in The Philly Weekly

The Philly Beer Top 50 - Part 9

Philly Beer Week is pretty much the biggest beer thing ever this side of the Great American Beer Festival when it comes to the not-shitty side of the Mississippi, so needless to say I'm stoked to be writing the 50-Beer Countdown To Philly Beer Week for the Philadelphia Weekly.

And hey, I care for you (not really), so I'm happy to divide it up into handy little five-beer lists like this. So here are five of the 50 beers available in Philly that you MUST drink. Part 9 of 10!

Founders Porter
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/Founders-Porter-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-41-207890051.html

Terrapin Monk's Revenge Imperial Belgian IPA
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/philly-beer-week/Terrapin-Monks-Revenge-Imperial-Belgian-IPA-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-42-207890161.html

Stillwater A Saison Darkly
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/Stillwater-A-Saison-Darkly-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-208861641.html

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day-43-208863351.html

Monk's Safe Flemish Sour Ale
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/drink/Monks-Cafe-Flemish-Sour-Ale-PWs-50-Beer-Countdown-to-Philly-Beer-Week-Day--208863761.html

Quick Sips: Deschutes Black Butte XXIII

NOTE: This review is made nearly six months after the beer was enjoyed, so take any assessments with that in mind.

Deschutes. I'm a New Jersey guy, so their amazing beers are not available to me unless I trade beer. And that's exactly how I got Deschutes Black Butte XXIII, a big ass porter (almost 11%) brewed with cocoa nibs, orange peel, and with a portion aged in bourbon barrels, available exactly ONCE.

Wait, a portion aged in bourbon barrels? Nonsense! Because despite only 25% of this being bourbon barrel aged, it's BOOZY as fark! Anyway ...

Pour it and take a whiff. The nose is alcohol and chocolate with deep sweet breads. Even by the smell, this beer means business.

You need to drink the damn thing, though, so you pour a glass and despite the high alcohol some nice carbonation is there – this beer poured with a rich, frothy head that quickly disappeared – but it’s gone fast, giving the beer a silky, slightly slick feel on the palate.

The taste? Mild chocolate in front with some bourbon heat in the middle. Orange notes poke through in the end. This beer is 10.8% with some fairly complex flavors (bourbon, orange, chocolate, etc.), but most of them fight pretty hard for dominance. The beer could have used some time for all these elements to come together a little more smoothly. Deschutes recognizes this by putting a best AFTER date on the bottle of 6/15/12 despite this being a 2011 beer. (Who does that?) Despite the BEST AFTER, I drank this beer around July 2012, after their recommended date, and it STILL needed more time.

One thing that surprised me was the booze. The bourbon isn’t overpowering sure, but it’s far more present in the middle than you’d expect considering the barrel-aged portion makes up only 25% of this blend. And as this beer warms it just gets boozier and boozier.

All that said, it's easy to see why the special editions of Black Butte are sought after each year. This beer is complex and delicious, definitely worth sinking into if you're a beer geek, but take a pass if you just want a good beer beer.

Quick Sips: Cricket Hill Reserve Series #15

Cricket Hill Brewery is one of New Jersey's little secrets. On a national level they don't get much attention, and heck, not even locally, what with Kane and Carton stealing all the recent spotlight and Flying Fish being seen as the gristled veterans.

But Cricket Hill is very quietly making some excellent beers, both approachable and experimental. One that falls in the latter category is #15 in their reserve series, a sour porter aged in bourbon barrels.

Allegedly, only nine cases or so were produced of this beer. I don't know how accurate the number is, but I do know I paid way more for this bottle than I normally would (mostly because I didn't check the price before getting to the register). It's limited as hell, so you'll pay for it. And take note, it came out last year, so if you see one GET IT because it's one of the last bottles in existence.

The beer is certainly intriguing. There is a sour tang on the aroma but it is not strong. It overpowers the porter -- no chocolate or roast to speak of in the nose -- but it doesn't overwhelm the senses. If there is some bourbon in the nose, it's subtle. The head retention is for crap, though. Ignore my photo. The head you see disappears quickly and doesn't stick around for long. While that's not highly unusual for sour beers, it happens particularly fast here.

But a beer is all in the taste, and this one ... is challenging. Challenging, but worthwhile. The sour in the taste is a wonderful balance between pronounced and yet not so dominant that it's all you can taste. It's sour, yeah, but there is brown malt that comes through in the middle, with a nice yet gentle wash of bourbon at the finish. There is sour dark fruit in here, too. Quite complex and for damn sure a beer you'll mull over.

New Jersey's craft beer scene is better than people give it credit for when it comes to nice, drinkable beers, but is low on the "wild and offbeat" list. Cricket Hill makes a good go at it with this beer. It's complex, challenging, tasty, but not for everyone.

(If this sounds like a beer you want to try, drop me a note or email. I can still get my hands on some, but not many bottles are left.)

Quick Sips: Bell's Porter

Evvvverybody loves Bell's Brewery, one of the best breweries in the Midwest (and yet oddly only the second best in their own state, after Founders). It's easy to see why in the rare opportunities I have to enjoy their beer. I'm in New Jersey, you see, and Bell's doesn't make it here. I have to get their stuff courtesy of friends like Jim McDevitt (also my coauthor). When I have, it's generally been excellent. Bell's are probably best known for their Two-Hearted Ale and summer favorite Oberon, not to mention the beer geek lust of Hopslam.

So, a porter? A simple, traditional beer like a porter? It's not exactly beer geek territory. So is it good?

Yes. Very much yes. Bell's porter is smoky like roasted chocolate on a bed of cool coffee, very nice malts with slight hints of caramel. It's dark, full, and delicious. Nothing fancy about it, nothing unusual about it, it's just a straight ahead fantastic porter. In fact, I'd rank it only closely behind two of the best American porters out there, the American trend-setter of this classic style, Anchor Porter, and another from their own state. Yup. Founders Porter, for my money the best classic porter made in America.

Bottom line: Bell's porter is the very definition of this style. Get it.