Iron Hill Ring of Fire Porter

Formerly brewed at Iron Hill Newark
Style: Porter
Newark, Delaware USA

(13oz bottle, thanks TurdFerguson) Medium beige head atop murky brown body. Aroma is medium sweet, chocolate, some juicy pepper. Taste is medium sweet, hot pepper over the top of cocoa and light roast. Smooth/burning medium body.

13oz caged and corked bottle (I guess they make these bottles look ’cool’ to lessen the sticker shock). Poured a cloudy brownish / orangish color with a huge sized tan head. Aromas of chocolate, roast, peppers, tobasco, wood, and some caramel. The peppery tobasco was there but not overpowering. Tastes of chocolate, tobasco, peppers, and roast. The heat from the tobasco crept on me and didn’t hit me at first (it takes a few seconds after a sip). The heat is there but this was still drinkable. Interesting (and I hope I don’t have another kind of ’ring of fire’ tomorrow morning).

Huge, heavy carbonation pushes dusty, brown foam out of the bottle, and pours a three inch head on one inch of muddy brown beer. Damn it looks ugly but I kind of like the look. Nice smoky, tangy and spicy nose that mixed some smoked malt, some roast/char and some chile peppers. Spicy, peppery wood and mildly hot chile peppers hit the tongue in a wonderfully delicious performance of roasted malts, dry wood, sharp peppers… damn good all around. A great idea executed very well.

Pours dark brown with a huge tan head. Nose is roasty malt, chile pepper, jalapeno oils, mild cacao and coffee notes. Tastes roasty dark malty, with pronounced chile/jalapeno pepper flavor matched with chocolate and some spicy yeasty notes. This went amazingly well with a handful of cool ranch doritos.

Bottled. The cork and cage are somewhere in my garden or the neighbor’s yard.. gushed out the whole way. Poured cloudy deep brown with a well-retained cap of tan head (once it settled down). The aroma picked up semi-sweet chocolate and graham crackers with a definite measure of spicy Tabasco sauce.. drier and well presented. The flavor wasn’t as good for me.. charred sweet and darker chocolates paired with tobacco.. building Tabasco spicage as it progressed, leaving an impression for a good couple minutes after the swallow.. the components just didn’t flow too well. Medium-bodied with way too much carbonation on the palate.. OK use of the barrel, but I didn’t care for the malts as much when it got to the flavor.. still solid overall.

Poured a dark mahogany color with a thin, light tan head that left no lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malts, some sweet chocolate, a touch of burnt wood, and a bit of green pepper. Taste of sweeter caramel up front, then some cocoa, with a roasted coffee, green pepper, and finishing with a spicy tobasco finish. I kept this chilled, and had no gushing, just a large head. Thanks to Iron Hill for this fantasticly interesting beer!

Thanks to Sam for sharing. Opens with some light explosion and some moderate foaming. Pours mostly head at first, then fades. Good peppery spicy aroma with light roasty hints and chocolate malt character and cinnamon red hot candy like. Buffalo sauce flavor, but light at first, very porter like but the Tabasco and pepper comes on strong towards the end and you can start feeling it in the back of the throat. Spicy, jalapeno, and cayenne character with some BBQ sauce throughout.

BCTC 08. So I made the mistake of sampling this at BCTC after about an hour into the fest. Sure the pepper was not apparent right away...but I sure had a tough time washing it off my tongue once it did kick in. Pours a deep brown with some amber notes and a medium creamy/bubbly tan head that left some lacing. Aroma of chocolate, some roated malts, earthy and a touch of some pepper. Flavor was chocolate, light roast, caramel, pepper...and then, wait a minute or maybe even less and a lingering burn kicks in.