Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Smoked
Ithaca, New York USA

Wow it sure is tough to follow such an eloquent descriptive rating. Bottle from LilBeerDoctor. Thanks! Nose has light smokey aromas, BBQ/Hickory notes, roast, light dark fruit. Pours dark brown almost black with a thin head that dissipates quickly. Flavor is initially lightly smokey with hints of sweet bbq. Dark fruit comes in a little, and it finishes light and roasty. Some lingering dry smoke/roast on the palate. Seemed a little thin to me, and carbonation was a tad to light IMO, but a decent brew.

Shared with my girlfriend, got this via trade on beerspot. Porus black with a tanhead. Nose is sweet and smoky. Taste is sweet, smoky and clearly a porter underneath the smoked. Nice.

On tap at Zeno’s Pub - State College, PA. Pours a clean mahogany-stained brown, with a creamy tan head. Aroma has a peculiar tint of dry chocolate, hazlenut powder, and a bit of charcoal ash. Nice and unique. Porter flavors come first. Crystalline cocoa sugar, melted brown sugar, a bit of vanilla, and some ice cream. Smoke is an afterthought. As a smoked beer, this is a pretty good porter. Body is dry, balanced, but holds up to the alcohols and roast crispiness. I like the hazlenut character of this beer, but the smoke is practically non-existent. If it shows at all, it’s a greasy, sooty, charcoal character that’s ashy and thin.

Bottle sample. Cloudy amber pour with a thin tan head. Sweet malt and caramel nose with a hint of bacon. Somewhat hammy flavor with some malt and a hoppy finish.

On tap at the Pony Bar, NYC. Body is garnet-amber, brownish at edges. Short medium tan head. Aroma is smoky malt/beef jerky, raw brazil nuts. Flavor is sweet caramel malt, some cocoa powder, much fainter smoke flavor, and lively carbonation that brings in a creamy mouthfeel and some hoppy bitterness/aftertaste. Nice session porter

Bottle. Pours brown with a small tan head. Aroma of smoked meat, sweet roasted malt. Flavor is not quite so smoked, sweet and roasty initially with a touch of smoke in the finish. Slightly on the sweet side. Admittedly not a great smoked, but a decent porter nonetheless. 7/4/7/3/14 (3.5/5)

Bottle, best by January or February 2010, I forget which and am too lazy to get up again to get the bottle. Aroma of smoked malt, a touch of campfire even, and, wait, even some meats as it warms, loads of milk/semisweet chocolate. Flavor solidly roasted with a bit of the smoke, not as smoky overall as the aroma, but more distinctly campfiery. A creaminess persists that is so entwined with the milk chocolate that it’s hard to tell them apart, almost milkshake-like at times. Though it isn’t smoky for the style listed (just a bit over the border between the smoked porters we call smokeds and those we call porters), I have to call this one terribly underrated, though it seems recent ratings agree with me.

Growler. Deep black beer with a sticky fast-fading head. The aroma is lightly sweet and cocoaish. A bit of light dusty cocoaish aroma. There is a little bit of smokiness. A little bit of smokiness and a bit of cocoa. There is a little bit of light brown malts. Soft lingering bitterness. It’s pretty solid.