John Sleeman Presents Fine Porter

Brewed by Sleeman Brewing & Malting Co. (Sapporo)
Style: Porter
Guelph, Canada

I would more classify this is as a lager than a poter. Nice caramel color, fizzy in the glass. Has a somewhat metallic taste.

I do love a good porter, but Sleeman’s Porter 68 doesn’t qualify as good. Too thin and watery for a porter, this one got a respectable score simply because it smelled decent and tasted of some roasted malts. There was also an offputting broccoli flavor in the background of this beer. Not recommended, as per the usual with my experience with this brewery.

Looks good in the glass - very dark brown - just like a porter should. The off-white head was also appealing. After all that, the taste was a bit disappointing though. I love porters and this didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I like it well enough to finish the six-pack I received through my beer club in Post Falls, Idaho but I don’t believe I’d purchase it on my own.

Dark brown with a small tan head. Weak aroma of toffee and sweet malts. Bittersweet grainy malt flavor.

Bottle. Pours thin and brown/black, with the emphasis on the former. Frothy head and nice lace work. Aroma is a mixture of wet leaves and expired malt, with a hint of chocolate cherry. Tastes of roasted chocolate and roasted nuts, with a hint of earth in the finish. Average mouthfeel. Not as bad as the ratings prior indicate, but not a beer to seek out with much effort.

Bottled. Poured a clear, lower-viscocity iced tea brown with a creamy, oddly whitish head to it. The nose was of artificially-sweetned cardboardey malts with a pinch of cocoa powder and dried hops with an English feel to it. Flavor did not do it for me... dried detergenty, leafy hops and a dark slightly roasted base that I could not decipher.. bit of cocoa powder in there, unexpected tackiness, no real development of flavors or anything to keep your interest. Lighter-bodied. There was nothing awful or offensive that came out of this.. but there was also nothing exciting about it. Meh.

Bottle. Pours clear brown with an average frothy light brown head that was lasting with fair lacing. Moderate roasted coffee nutty aroma. Medium to full body. Balanced bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of an average duration. Drinkable porter.

Pours a pale teak/generic brown ale color, and features a camel head with cobwebby lace. Weird grapejuice aroma, followed by breadcrust, roasted corn, and bubblegum. Rather extreme grainy and estery flavor, crabapple, some diacetyl, shoe polish? I would bet money there’s a ton of corn in the grist, and lager yeast in the fermenter. Some herbal (German?) hops in the tart finish. Lightish and frothy mouthfeel leads to an aftertaste I would describe as coppery/roasty or grapefruit/espresso. There is an overall impression of acrid nastiness that I liken to seawater and mouth-vomit.