Bluegrass Dark Star Porter

Brewed by Bluegrass Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Louisville, Kentucky USA

I thought this beer was just sort of so-so. I feel like this could’ve been a really highly rated beer 10-15 years ago, but the explosion in the variety of beer that beer geek-dom has now been exposed to (myself included) has relegated this one to the ho-hum category. It pours a little thin and light for a porter. Head is OK, but quickly fades to a scummy coating. Aroma is pretty minimal, but offers some hints of chocolate and dark roastiness. Flavor is light and drinkable, but offers pretty subtle flavors and some dark roasty character that is reminiscent to me of a wood-burning fireplace or an ashtray. Not bad, just not super-exciting. There’s nothing wrong with this beer; I thought it was OK, it’s just that if it’s in the top of its class (porters) it is just barely so. Looks like JPDIPSO and I belong to the same micro-brew of the month club, as this is where my sample of this beer came from.

Dark brown with a red glow when held to the light. Smallish taupe head. Dark chocolate, black malt and hints of dark fruit and herbal hops as well. Flavors follow with the aromas. Light acidity and quite bitter in the finish from the black malt.

12oz bottle. Poured a darker reddish / brown color with an averaged sized of white head. Aromas of cocoa, caramel, some roastiness, and nutty. Tastes of cocoa, caramel, and lighter roast. Body on the thinner side.

Average. Nothing terribly wrong, but nothing interesting either. It’s aight.

BOTMC Selection August 2008: Poured from the bottle into a pint glass. Pour produced a dark brown body topped by a quickly diminishing off-white head of foam. Aroma is typical with the style, chocolaty, with a promise of sweetness. The sweetness is not delivered, however. This is a dry porter, with a bitterness that dissipates quickly. The hopping of this is done well, quickly balancing out the typical sweetness found in a porter. Chocolate is the main palate with some hops at the end. This is certainly a drinkable beer that threw a curve ball at me by bittering up a typically sweet style. Not bad, but not a porter, per se.

On tap at BBC in the Cincy airport. Poured clear chocolatey brown with a very well-retained cap of beige head.. nice lacing as well. The aroma picked up toasted figs and darker fruits upfront with dry, residual sweeter chocolates and roasted barley behind.. nice, but a tad too much simple sugar present. The flavor was on the sweeter side with mixed chocolates and licorice at the core, surrounded by coffee and herbal bitterness.. sweet and roasty finish. Dry and lighter-bodied on the palate with enough carbonation to help the bitterness pop.. OK feel overall. Solid.

Dark brown almost black in coloring with a small foamy ring of off white almost tan head. Creamy roasty nose with coffee and cocoa notes. Rich roasty with a hint of smoke. A delicious porter!

bottle BB may/2008 by way of StFun... pours a dark woody mahogany shade of brown with a quickly dissipating tan head. the aroma and flavor are chocolate, grassy hops, coffee-like nuttiness and some metallic malty grains. there’s a bit of ashy/astringency on the dry mildly bitter/woody finish. it’s a little light in the body but it makes that up with nice acidity and creamy carbonation...