Left Hand SmokeJumper

750 2006 vintage Montreal tasting. Pours black with a 1 finger light brown head. Super smoky nose, peaty, with some mega knock you on your ass pow. Taste is smoky roasty, with a lot kick, this is a damn grade A smoked.

In short: Top-of-the-class Smoked Imperial Porter
How: Mtl-crew beer-and-spagatt tasting. Bottle from I-don’t-remember-who.
The look: Black body with a very small beige head
In long: Medium intensity smoke. Creamy body with a chocolate cake feeling. Dry cacao and coffee beans. Light astringency touch in the finish. Up there with the Calumet Grand Chef on top of the Smoked Porters mountain. Very tasty but never aggressive. The nicest smoked porter since that cool pot-smoking Jamaican that was carrying my luggage.

220z bottle: Pours a very dark brown with a notable tan head. The aroma is pure roast with hints of coffee and molasses. The flavor follows the aroma The palate is well matched to the style with a nice soft coating. This overall character of the beer is very enjoyable. Cheers to Left Hand!

The pour from the caged and corked 750ml bottle is deep brown to black in color, the head a nice chocolate brown, as it erodes, and the lace forms a thick and glutinous curtain that obscures the glass. Start has a rich deep burnt grain aroma, hints of hops and malt, a bit of smokiness also present, Top is light to moderate in feel, and the finish has a good hop presence with a pleasant acidity, fairly dry and a nice Porter overall.

My Bottom Line:
Smoked almonds decorate the healthy evening roast in this masterful, nourishing Imperial Smoked Porter. Surely one of Left Hand’s greatest achievements.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam tops the brown-sleeved black.
-The body is full and beautifully firm.
-Malts develop more than roast and smoke; coffee, dark chocolate and nuttiness even celebrate.
-The only thing left to do is to have a taste-off with Bièropholie Grand Chef. Oh, and buy lots of each.
-This is not good because it’s big and intense; it’s great because every flavor is well calculated and ingeniously integrated.

Bottled in 2006.

750ml Bottle: Aroma of smoke, bacon, and wood. Poured dark black in color with a medium-sized tan head that lasted throughout. Small lacing. Opaque. Flavor of smoke, chocolate, malts, and bbq sauce. Medium body. Average texture. Soft carbonation. Smokey finish. Overall, very smoky, but nothing else.

750ml bottle shared courtesy of egajdzis. Poured a dark brown color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of smoked meats, campfire, with some roast, chocolate and earthiness. Real nice smokiness. Tastes of smoke, chocolate, and roast. Light to medium alcohol finish.

Draft. Very dark in color. The aroma is all smoke - Mesquite. This beer definitely is too smokey for my palate and tastes. I had to fight to get through this one. I see it has a large following, however I am not one of them.