City Winter Porter

Brewed by City Brewery (Melanie Brewing Co)
Style: Porter
La Crosse, Wisconsin USA

Dark brown with red highlights. Smells musty, somewhat like coffee and alcohol. Mild, somewhat rancid flavor of old vegetables mixed with coffee. One dimensional, and not offering much.

Not as good as I was hoping, but I do have a few good things to say about it. I think this would probably be a good beer to start a "nieve" rater out on. Someone who's used to BMCs, but is willing to try something new. This beer is a bit sweet, chocolaty - which should appeal to them, and it's fairly light and easy to drink. No bad flavours, but the aroma smells a little farty. Try it sometime - it's worth the rating, but afterwards, skip it for one of the better choices below.

Not as bad as I thought this would be. Extremely mild, it sent me searching for something. What I got was, carbonation, malt texture, something that feels like liquid in my mouth...well, nothing in other words. But at least it wasn't offensive.

Ok, so City Brewery is kinda a joke here in the land of beer, but I got it in a grab bag. I poured it into the glas and was very plesently suprised...a nice dark color and good head. Maybe they are turhing things around. Then I took a wiff of it...ugh! Smells like crap! Ok, so what will it taste like...what it looks like or what is smells like. You guessed it, it taste like Special Export with a lot of back food coloring. Damn.

While at first I was a bit disgruntled by the lack of "bowl me over" flavor in this brew, I soon came to realize that a Porter doesn't always have to be Stouts wanna-be cousin. Rather, a porter can be a lighter (relatively) more refreshing beverage and exempt from the mentality of muscle-beers. This being said, City's Winter Porter IS a bit lacking in flavor that one would expect from a typical porter. Well shit, I've written myself into a corner. Bottom line, this beer is smooth with light overtones of roast, a touch of coffee and caramel and quite easy to lay back and relax with. Of course, I could just "be chasing waterfalls".

Porter is as porter does? Winter Porter is admittedly bland, but it is by no means a bad beer. Roasted notes give way to a subtle sweetness. The body is too thin, and the aroma and flavor are simply not very complex.

(Bottle) For whatever reason, I seem to have had a more positive experience with this beer than some of the others who have rated it. Color was very dark but clear. When I held it up to the fluorescent light, I could see a tinge of red through the glass. Head was initially substantial but soon settled down to a nice thin presence. Like City’’s pale ale, the head could be rejuvenated by swirling the glass a few times. Nice lacing as the level of beer went down.

The taste was classic roasted barley malt with a fair amount of hopping to set it off. Palate was very nice I thought with just the right level of carbonation.

I can"t believe the quality of beer these guys are offering for the price--got my six of this for $4.99. Unfortunately, where I made my purchase, it sits in the same cooler as the American ’classics’ such as Bud, Miller and Old Stool. Of course, maybe someone normally buying the usual might spy this and give it a whirl...

Dark mohogany brown with a two-tone tan and off white head. Brown sugar, with a touch of dark malt aroma. A mix between a lager, a dry stout and a weak bock. Faint hints at a brown porter. Just a fairly bland dark beer.