Harveys Porter (Bottle)

A deep dark porter with a weak light moka head and low carbonatation. Aroma is pleasant, with plums, currants, licorice and chocolate. In mouth, a crisp dryish bitter chocolate with herbal notes, tobacco, and light peated notes. Medium bodied, but very complex. A pleasant surprise. LCBO Nov. 2007. BB June 2008.

500 ml bottle courtesy jerc, best before JUN08. Dark ruby amber colour with a mostly diminishing frothy off-white head. Lightly acidic and roasty coffee aroma with notes of bittersweet chocolate. Bittersweet chocolate, lightly roasty, lightly acidic, and fruity flavours with a faint metallic tinge in the roasty finish. Medium bodied, smooth and almost silky mouthfeel.

Molasses, fresh leafy tobacco, cocoa, apricot, raisin and plum notes to the nose. Clear mahogany brown body with chestnut highlights topped by a generous, foamy tan-brown head that has a nice mix of large and fine bubbles, sticks to the sides of the glass and lasts very well. Sweet malts are undercut by pronounced saltiness and mineral character. Some sherry like flavours in the aftertaste and roasted malts are quite pronounced. Throughout all that it still seems sweet. Some sulfur is also apparent in the finish as are dried dark pit fruits. Very soft texture with fair to medium carbonation that leaves the medium full body feeling quite silky in the mouth. There’s a lot going on here and its a finely crafted beer but ultimately I think the mineral character is too strong for my tastes. Half pint glass. Cellar temperature. Bottle (LCBO, Nov-07).

Bottle from the LCBO. Very dark body, small foamy beige head. Sweet aroma, light molasses notes, sweet something I cannot quite place. (7+) Similar flavour, quite sweet, malt and molasses, light hint of lactose? Interesting, pleasant. Average palate. Not bad but I don’t think I would rush out to try it again.

Bottle - Pitch black, tiny head, malt-chocolate aroma, quite a mild flavour kind of like a mild tipped cigar, nice but nothing special

Nice dark with a full head and decent carbonation, but ultimately too sweet by half.

Bottled sample via gregclow. Near black in colour with lower than average carbonation. Aromas are of burnt toffee, tar, and a bit of fruit. Flavors of sweet caramel malts and fruit mix with some milder coffee and chocolate notes. There’s some smoke and leather notes as well. Slick, albeit somewhat watery, body. A pretty good English style porter, but could do with some more roasted malt notes to balance things out.

Bottle at home ... Deep solid black ... good thick off white head ... lots of roast malts ... slightly bitter roast malts ... quite fruity little souness ... some smooth silky bitter chocolate ...