Great Divide St. Bridgets Porter (St. Brigids)

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Denver, Colorado USA

<!-- i -->Bottled.<!-- /i --> <!-- br --> Dark brown, no head. Strong dark chocolate and coffee nose. Light, coca cola palate, robust and sweetish flavor. Sweet coffee in the aftertaste. Aroma is slightly better than flavor.

In the bottle at the HyVee Oktoberfest beer tasting in Council Bluffs. Mild chocolate porter flavor. Good mouthfeel- rich in body. Milky tartness and a mild finish. Pours dark brownish black with a dark tan head.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trades with bkelley68 and jeffin7, thanks Brian and Jeff!)

14-Apr-05 This will be a two-part review since I have a bottle of the old St. Brigid’s Porter (which I’m rating right now), and the newer Saint Bridget’s Robust Porter (which I’ll rate later on). Fairly flavorful, about average for a porter, dominated by a lightly sweet, moderate chocolaty maltiness. Roast has presence, but is pretty minimal in comparison, as is the mild bitterness. The nose is malty and moderately bready, with a faint roastiness and some yeast. Medium body is about average for a porter. Deep, dark, ruddy brown color shows a slight translucence. Tan head pours to an average size, but shows much better than average retention, as the head never diminishes below a complete, quarter-inch layer. A fishnet of lace adorns the glass.

17-Apr-05 Okay, and now for Saint Bridget’s Robust Porter... Color is about the same. The lazy, slow-to-form, tan head peaks at about ¼ inch in height and very quickly fades away to a wispy sheen inside a thin halo. Chocolate and roast dominate the nose, with no sign of the breadiness like with the older bottle. The chocolaty, faintly sweet maltiness is about the same, but it’s also fairly roasty, ashy and bitter, traits which didn’t seem as prevalent in the older bottle. Fairly dry mouthfeel. Solid body is above average for a porter. Perhaps the only real difference between the two bottles is freshness. This bottle just tastes fresher. So I guess the recipe is about the same. Good, solid porter from a company whose 12-ounce bottles are sometimes maligned.

I got this one in my beer club. I am not familiar with the brewer. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a black color with a large creamy light brown head. The aroma was chocolate and roasted malts. The flavor is dry roasted malt and light dry chocolate. The roasted malt lingers dryly on the finish.

Pours a deep mahogany with an off-white head. Aroma is hoppy and roasty. Taste is of roasted malt, coffee, mocha with a hint of dark fruit. Mildly bitter. Mouthfeel is thin to medium but very smooth. Pretty decent but it doesn’t come close to their other brews.

Dark, dark garnet with a medium, frothy, tan head. Aroma is surprisingly light; mostly chocolate and coffee; maybe a tiny touch of dark fruits. Flavor chocolate, roast, coffee, and a touch of vanilla. Medium-thick body; frothy; moderate sticky. Nice, easy-drinking porter.

Black colored, little beige head. Sweetness, berries, coffee in rich aroma with oak and mild chocolate. Medium bodied. Flavor is more chocolaty with roastiness and coffee, nuts and sweetness with balancing hops also there. Aftertaste dries conveniently with lasting chocolate. Slightly too thin bodied.

12 oz. bottle from Plaza Liquor - Pours a clear brown color with a good size tan head. Very light lacing. Has a strong roasted/toasted malt aroma. Has a grainy, dark malt, and light coffee flavor. No real hop flavor but the bitterness is there. Has a somewhat smooth, but dry finish. Light to medium body. A decent Porter and it’s worth a try.