MacTarnahans Bourbon Cask Aged Blackwatch Cream Porter

Formerly brewed at Portland Brewing Company (Pyramid)
Style: Porter
Portland, Oregon USA

2003 bottle. A ring of yellowish head covers the deep cola brown body and somehow manages to lace a bit. Woody oxidized aromas hint at penny, nuts, mellow bourbon and strong chocolate milk. Keep in the same vein in mouth, but the bad parts are pushed further, a metallic-wood combo with strong barrel influence on a seemingly dull base beer. Leafy, penny-ish and chocolatey. Very bubbly thin body doesn’t help the matters. Some may like it, but this has to be past its prime.

Bottle: Courtesy of BBB63 (I think). Aroma is a great balance of chocolate, vanilla, and bourbon. Pours a dark brown with no tranparency and a fizzy tan head that quickly fades to a ring. Chocolate and vanilla up front with some light hints of tart fruitiness. Finishes with a nice balance of roasted coffee and bourbon.

2003 bomber: Pours a dark a luscious looking brown accompained by a small tan head. The aroma is a strange smell, but it does have nice notes of chocolate, toasty malt, rice, and wood. The flavor has gone quite flat and seems to have lost all of its personality over the years. However, i do note small signs of roasted malt and wood, but i mean, it is so faint that i’m not enjoying this beer as i sit here drinking it. Past its prime, for sure.

Bottle Pours a deep inky black with a large faomy dark tan head. Lacing is coarse and spotty. Lots of dark pitted fruits aromas, chocolate and vanila and a little of that bourbon cask. Flavor is mainly very smokey and chocolate and yes, lacking that common porter tang. Very smooth though not particularly heavy and fairly lively carbonation. Very yummy. May have to hoard a few of these.

This came to me in a nice trade from someone whose name I can’t recall at the moment. The beer, sadly, like many barrel-aged beers, tastes more like the barrel than like the base beer. I looked somewhat in vain for my buddy the Porter Tang and didn’t find him. What I did find was a ton of char, vanilla, and oak flavors along with a slick mouthfeel and a slightly alcoholic aftertaste. The porter was there, of course, in some roasty notes, a fleeting bitterness, some coffee and chocolate notes...but almost all was bourbon.

The name of this beer really is an apt description of what it is really like. Definitely a porter with its characteristic nicely toasted malt flavors, very creamy with a pleasant mouth feel, and a very slight bourbon character in both the aroma and beer. One of the best offerings from this brewery.

Buttered popcorn nose, dark dark black color. Tastes like buttered popcorn also. Whiskey end. Heavy sweet taste. The burbon really comes through. I’m not so exciting from these bourbon cask ales overall.

2003/ thanks arnoud and Shelly! Nice black color, medium hazelnut brown head. Coffee - slightly sweet taste. Butter popcorn nose.