Ithaca Gorges Smoked Porter

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

12 oz bottle from variety pack. Very nice. Nice dark color, light aroma and a slight smoky flavor. Ithaca makes good brews that are not overstated, and this is a porter I’d buy again, and I am a porter fanatic.

12oz - Brownish black pour releasing smoky notes and forming a pale brown head, very little carbonation. Smoked ham and creamy malt on palate. Think ham and scalloped potatoes here. Good but kind of one dimensional.

Bottle (12oz). Deep clear ruby-brown with a small fizzy quick-diminishing tan head. Sweet, oily, almost burnt roast malt aroma, syrupy nut oil, dry bitter hops, crushed cedar leaves , and of course lots of earthy smoke - actually quite nice. Taste - very much like it smells, peaty roast tang overlays deep vaguely coffeeish nutty roast malt, a little oily and sweet in the finish, but nice. Syrupy, still body, a ferric tang in the smoky finish - pretty good beer, although it gets a little cloying and extract-y in the end.

One bottle in trade from JB. The color is nice and dark, a bit light on the body. The smell is of strong malt and hops. The taste is dominated by smoked malt. This had a hoppy ending.

Dark brown with slight reddish highlights. Thin disappearing head. The aroma is smoky and the palate is pretty much beef jerky. Some sweetness in there too, and hops coming in to help, but overall too much smoke and too little porter for me.

Deep brown in colour, long lasting beige coloured head, some light lacing. The aroma is of smoked malts, light chocolate sweetness, earthy. The flavour is sweet at first, some dark chocolate, the smoked malts come in near the end, some dark fruits as well, earthy, light hazelnuts. Bitter mouthfeel, medium body, medium carbonation. Finishes lingering, light bitterness with the ever present smoke. Good stuff allround, you definitely know that this is a smoked beer.

<font size=-2>355ml bottle obtained in a trade with <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?U target=blank>jah noth, thanks Dan. No best before date.</font>

12 oz bottle at the Downtown Bar and Grill. Poured very dark brown with some lacing. Aroma is very present - lots of smoke but some weird (cannot pinpoint) aroma behind that. Taste is all meaty smoke. I usually find smoked porters not smoked enough but this one is definitly a SMOKED porter. Finally something good out of Ithaca, as my friend said.

Bottle from Rich and served in my Ratebeer Tulip: <P> Poured a cola like brown hue with a fading head and okay lace. The aroma has notes of smoked wood, caramel and mocha, maple sugar, apple, and peat esters. The taste has a nice smoked balance with sweet malt background. Undertones of coffee, mocha, and hazelnut make a minor showing. The bad news is there is a bit of sourness around the palate making me think the beer is starting to turn. That sourness also gave an unwanted mouthfeel finish. I think in prime condition, this beer would be a solid offering.