Boulder Beer Planet Porter

Brewed by Boulder Beer Company
Style: Porter
Boulder, Colorado USA

Slight chocolate and fruit in the aroma. Dark amber color with a small tan head. Not too much bitterness in the taste. Palate is mildly chalky. Carbonation is fine and moderate.

From the tap poured deep dark red, not quite black with a quickly diminishing head. Aroma of malts and licorice. Flavor is a little sweet for a porter with hits of butter and toffee. Finish is sweet but firm. Not your textbook porter but pour me another anyway.

I thought this was a pretty marginal porter. Porter is a style with many entrants and thus a lot of very nice beers. Like IPA, porter is a competitive style to play in (more so than say Berlinerweisse or Eisbock) and this is not at the top of the style. It might be in the middle...or even at the left hand side of the bell curve. This beer had a rather thin character, very faint flavor, and abundant off-notes. Not a home run. This beer poured a rather thin dark color, light enough or thin enough to have light pass through it. Aroma was oddly fruity, much like a middle-of-the-road ale (say a blonde ale) might have. Flavor was a bit of fruitiness that would not be out-of-character for a light ale, and some sour off-notes. There was not much in the way of roast-y character, particularly not for the style. Mouthfeel was OK, but a little thin. Not a new favorite for me. Respect the effort, and Boulder makes some nice beers, but this is not atop the heap. I bought this at Liquor Mart in Boulder when visiting to attend the GABF. I brought it home to Milwaukee in my wooden leg.

12oz bottle. Very dark in color, roasted amlt aroma, very sweet, pretty good porter.

12oz bottle. Poured a dark, deep brown with a larger sized tan head. Aromas of coffee, roast, light chocolate, and maybe some light caramel lurking in the background. Tasets of roast, chocolate, and light coffee. Thinner body.

Quite representative of this style, which is to say that it isn’t all that distinctive. Smoky palate as expected with the style, which is what makes the style itself distinctive.

Great coffee aroma and color. Thin, short lived head. Flavors of coffee and citrus along with hint of bread. Palate is caramel-like and thinner than some porters. Overall good "swillin’."

Pours like a dark ruby that you barely see any light coming through. The head comes and goes quickly. I’d give it a 4 if the head stayed around longer than 5 seconds. Nose is okay. Some faint roasted coffee scents with little much else to it. It almost smells watery. Taste starts off pretty good with a slight malty edge that goes to the roasted coffee, but quickly vanishes. What is odd is that the flavor kicks in again after disappearing and gives you a stronger coffee flavor than before. Really weird, but good in it’s own way. Still though, not as robust as it should be. Feel is lame. Watery, watery, watery. Just lacks substance of any kind. Drinkability? No. Won’t go back to it again. Can’t suggest you giving it a try.