Alaskan Smoked Porter

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Smoked
Juneau, Alaska USA

Clear copper color with an off white head. Mild to medium smoky meat n’ cheese aromas. Medium body. Lightly sweet pale malt flavor with mild smoke and cheese. Smoke brew lite. Draft@ Humpys.
Earlier Rating: 8/16/2008 Total Score: 3.8
2007 bottling. Black with a frothy 2" head. Nice aroma is saline smoked salmon and beef jerky. Medium body. Good porter flavors of dry blackened malts with smoked meat and charred camp fire wood. Classic smoked beer here.

Taste is wood, ash, smoke, and chocolate with a surprising (and enjoyable) peppery finish. Smooth, full-bodied mouth feel with low carbonation. Outstanding beer.

Bomber. Opaque black and dark with thick going thin and disappearing light brown head. Roasted and smokey aroma that also consists of muted floral notes behind a more predominantly sweet roasty chocolate. tastes of chocolate sweetness with roasty wood ending sour and chocolaty. Smooth, clean, easy to drink, but very complex. Salty alcoholic notes throughout the whole beer. A real drinking porter!

22 oz bottle shared with a friend and from liquidsolutions. Pours a nice dark opaque pour, near black with some brownish lighter notes on the corners. A nice brown head that dissipates to a film and clings to the corners. Aromas are good smokiness, heavy meaty jerky smell, salty and marinated meat, light woody ashy smoke as well. A medium bodied porter preaches meaty smoke and ashy wood, a lighter roasted malt gives way to a good smoked malt which is a style I love. Lighter feel, emphasizing smoke is a good example of the style. Faint bitterness, largely a wonderful example of a smoky dark beer. A decent roastiness underneath leads to a good balance. Smokiness steals the show, meaty and lightly ashy.

2008 Vintage. A real WTF moment when I finally noticed I had never properly pounded out some notes for this beer. Appearance: Pours out a dark brown, near black body with some ruby-hued edges and a topped by a frothed, beige head. Smell: A distinct aroma with its alder wood aspect that’s always suggestive of high quality smoked meats. Also some roasty and unsweetened chocolate notes as well as a waft of dark fruits. Taste: Though the smoked alder wood is full and present in the flavor, it doesn’t totally squash the beer’s other characteristics. Roasty, sweetish malts with some subtle chocolate tones and even milder hint of decaffeinated coffee. Touch of dark fruitiness in the background. Slight clean bitterness present. The smokiness remains beyond the drying finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Fairly smooth mouthfeel. Drinkability: With its relatively lighter body and good balance, this one is just that much more drinkable and it can become quite difficult not to grab a few bombers and drink yourself into a stupor on the couch. It’s a beer I’m always happy to have regardless of vintage or time of year it happens to be.

660ml bottle (Cracked Kettle, Amsterdam)
Very dark brown, large dark doughy head. fairly subdued aroma, dry, lightly smoked, and a touch burnt. Quite lively carbonation, crisp palate, smooth too. Some burtness in the retronasals, more than smokiness. Taste is malt dominated, a burnt roast, with a little bite of astringency. Smokey phenols seem to reinforce the burntness rather than stand on their own. Finish is certainly interesting, there’s a touch more smoke than the taste, but also some drying ashiness, a delicate little hoppy bite, and lasts pleasantly long. No chance of 6.5% ever making its way through the flavours in this one - gluggable! And yup, this was one thirst-quenching brew!

4 oz pour at the Oregon Brewers Festival in July ’09. Nice smokey palate and malty balance. Extremely good throughout.

1. On Tap at the Falling Rock Tap House, Denver 13/10/2008 Smoky roast aroma. Small tan head. Black and smooth on the palate with some alcohol present. A little rich. Crisp and slightly dry lasting smoked finish. 2. From the Bottle at the Denver Rare Beer Tasting, Wynkoop Brewery 25/09/2009 (1999 Vintage) Big smoked and roast aroma. Beige head. Black strong in alcohol rich and a little sweet on the palate with a hint of dryness in a crisp coffee and fruit finish. 3. From the Bottle at the Denver Rare Beer Tasting, Wynkoop Brewery 25/09/2009 (2008 Vintage) Smoked aroma. Yellow head. Black and smooth on the palate with some alcohol present. A little dryness and bitterness in a crisp roast finish.