Foothills Barrel Aged Peoples Porter

Brewed by Foothills Brewing
Style: Porter
Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA

Is it strange that a beer should remind me of childhood? Sniffing Foothills Barrel-Aged People’s Porter was like opening an old oak toy chest, and sipping it, the warm vanilla flavor was reminiscent of a cream soda, my father’s favorite soda to buy for family cookouts. It was black, like the People’s Porter, with a frothy off-white head. It had a very drinkable body with little carbonation and of course the roasty chocolately flavors you would expect. Also it’s possible that this beer might have picked up a little more on the ABV than the 1% guesstimate from the barrel because I was feeling a little light in the head after sampling it--then again, it could have been the nostalgia...

Growler provided by, I believe, cardsfan1 at the HMoG at the Brick Store. He mentioned this was aged in Pappy Van Winkle 23yr barrels. Pours almost completely black with only hints of mahogany coming through at the edges. The head was short-lived, tan and left decent lacing. The aroma is very well-balanced for a barrel-aged beer with the bourbon present initially in the nose. Pretty quickly the chocolate sweetness and dark malts come through and hints of vanilla as well. The taste is just as balanced with the bourbon blending almost perfectly with the chocolate. The malt backbone is definitely noticeable and doesn’t let the bourbon dominate completely. Perfectly balanced, which I can’t often say about bourbon barrel beers. The mouthfeel is surprisingly light for a bourbon beer and with decent carbonation - very smooth overall. Well, this one just blew me away. Having never had the normal Peoples Porter, I don’t exactly know what to compare it to. What I do know is that this is a fantastic beer and one of the top 2 beers I tried at the HMoG. Outstanding.

Name: People’s Porter, BA
Date: January 10, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, HMoG
Appearance: black, fine beige head, bits of lace
Aroma: sweet bourbon and vanilla aroma, lots of vanilla
Flavor: rich chocolate and bourbon flavor, vanilla and caramel sweetness brings out the rich chocolate and turns it into a bourbon candy, light bitterness comes in with the oak to balance it

Name: People’s Porter, BA
Date: January 31, 2009
Mode: cask
Source: acat beerfest
Score: 3.8
a bit more subdued on cask with a restrained sweetness preventing some of the other characters from coming out a s strong,

Name: People’s Porter, BA
Date: February 07, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: brewpub
better than sex, sexual chocolate that is

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 9/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 18/20
Rating: 4.3/5.0
Drinkability: 10/10
Score: ***4

At presex. Pretty beer with a distinct and complex bourbon character. The pappy van winkle shows and I actually enjoy it. Dark brown with brown sugar, vanilla, roasted malts, chocolate. Tasty beer

Duck-Rabbit’s Milk Stout was recently given a nice, long rest in a barrel of Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-Year Old Family Reserve. Appearance: Dark brown, near black body with a few tired-looking, beige bubbles resting on top. Smell: Porter-minded notes of chocolate and roasty coffee with the strong scent of quality bourbon whiskey leading the charge. Taste: Dark maltiness displayed as a taste of bittersweet chocolate with a minor toffee-like sweetness and a swig of morningtime coffee. The bourbon definitely dominates the flavor, but, thankfully, doesn’t really detract from it as it delivers an abundance of charred oak barrel flavor with a light bitterness trailing close behind. Lesser tastes of coconut and brown sugar. Richly bourbony finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-low carbonation. Drinkability: Kudos to the folks at Foothills for producing a fine, tasty bourbon barrel-aged porter.

Draft at the Saucer and poured into a snifter. Poured a nice black color with a short lived brown head. Moderate lacing throughout the tasting. The bourbon in this comes first in the smell followed by vanilla and chocolate. The taste is a very nice blend of bourbon and vanilla. At first I thought it was a bit sweet but as it warmed it balanced itself. A fantastic beer from Foothills that I will try to get whenever they have it on draft.

Draught. Pours dark mahoghany brown with a short-lived beige head. Aroma is a balance between chocolate and bourbon with the latter imparting nice vanilla notes. Woody barrel aromas balance roasty malts nicely. Flavor is similar with chocolate and bourbon prominent, and brown sugar, vanilla, cola, and oak notes rounding things out. Finishes bourbony and a little boozy. Medium bodied with a velvety smoothness enhanced by the barrel aging. This is good - pretty much what you’d expect when you take a very good porter and barrel age it. The barrel influence is relatively high but it works nicely, which is more noteworthy considering that its not a particularly full-bodied beer to start with.

I think I had the Bourbon barrel version of this at EBF Session 1. Aroma of light bourbon, chocolate, light toast, and oak. Taste has some mild roasted notes, with a nice amount of chocolate, light bourbon, molasses. Medium bodied, finishes with a mild to moderate hop bitterness. Nicely done.