Cricket Hill Paymasters Porter

Brewed by Cricket Hill Brewing Co.
Style: Porter
Fairfield, New Jersey USA

The color was dark black. The head was thin, creamy, and off-white. The aroma was coffee, roasty, sweet, and chocolate. The flavor was light coffee, roasty, and some hops. The palate was smooth. The finish was a little abrupt.

Finely handbottled. Frothy pour of rich oak brown with lingering red near the bottom. Aromatic of fresh dark roasted coffee and vanilla ice cream; bit of dark chocolate and cinnamon and sweet vegetables. Mulch. Pleasantly earthy and true to form. Flavor is milky, brown, nutty; roasted hazelnuts, some tartness of red apple, pistachio, grassiness. Wholeheartedly and without shame very reserved; some lush honeydew and even blood orange fruitiness and cool vanilla sweetness humming in the mid palate. Palate is soft, medium bodied and somewhat watery; sugary coffee and dry nut skin in the chasing finish. Very much a simple brown porter and a fine representation at that, full of barely there complexity and silky touch throughout. Thanks Andrew!

Draft at Which Brew in Easton PA. Pours deep brown with a thin tan head. Aroma of roast and cocoa. Flavor is nicely balanced, which has flavors of nuts, chocolate, and nicely controlled dark roast. There is just enough bitterness to balance it out. Some astringency on the finish. Not bad. This leans toward the style of Brown Porter.

Draft at Which Brew. Nice black body with thin head. Aroma is roast, chocolate, a bit faint. Flavor is roast, chocolate, nutty and a sweet malty body. Very smooth with a great chocolate after taste. This beer is far under rated.

growler-pours a rich to rocky brown heat that laces and black color. Aroma is dark malt-molasses/chocolate, roasty/nutty. Taste is dark malt-coffee/molasses/chocolate, roasty/nutty, secondary hops bite. not my style. Full body. 2.7 With some fudge, nicer to my taste, although it becomes somewhat thinner mouth feel and less coffee dominant. 2.9

Tasted at the Pocono beer fest. Excellent addition to Cricket Hill’s arsenal. Very smooth with a nice malty finish. The beer was only a few weeks old. Can’t wait to taste it again when its a little less green. PS They need to get rid of that stupid dart game.

On draft at the brewery fot their Friday night get-to-gether. A darker brown black that is translucent. Nose has hints of rasins but since there was so much smoke and it was after all in the woring area of the drafty brewhouse I lost a bit of the nose. Not to worry, the body is medium with a nice hop emphasis. A good patent/choco body builds the character of this brew. The finish is a bit watery but this in no way disables this brew. An all day drinker for sure. I wish I had brought my growler for some of this to take home. Even more so that I hope the economics of this brewery enable them to put this in bottles soon. it was a pleasure speaking with Rick Reed last night at length. May 2008 be the year of the Cricket. It was also nice to get the whole story of how this was named by the brewer himself. ....I’m not tellin’ go there yourself and ask him....the nerve of you people!

I thought this was a decent beer. Nice malty flavor - ’grainy kind of palate. Drinkable brew. very nice.