Mad River Steelhead Scotch Porter

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: Porter
Blue Lake, California USA

6/24/2007 and 7/10/2007: Steelhead Scotch Porter is very dark brown and opaque. It has a decent tan/brown head that is dense and long-lasting and leaves some light lacing. Roasted malt, chocolate, some faint char, and some fruitiness (when warmer) can be found in the aroma. The flavor has roasted malt with some chocolate and darkly roasted coffee undertones. There is also some of that deep, carmelized maltiness and fruitiness that is typical of Scotch Ales. The finish has a lot of dry, dark chocolate and char flavor. More and more coffee flavor and dry smoke come out as the beer warms up. This beer has a medium-full body and is very smooth. Overall, this beer is full-flavored and robust. The peated malt is is nice addition and was obviously done carefully. This beer met and slightly exceeded my expectations. Steelhead Scotch Porter is a well crafted beer that is quite easy to drink despites its complex flavors.

12 oz bottles from River’s Bend Wine and Spirits. Rating #151 for this beer...

Bottle. Hmm, is this a porter, or a combination of a scotch ale and a porter.. Pours a deep dark brown with a thick dark tan head. Excellent lacing. The aroma is of coffee, chocolate, and roasted malts. The initial taste is all coffee. As it warms, things open up a bit and additional flavors come out. More chocolate, roasted malts, maybe even some molasses. A little more body on this thing, and it would be a stout. Nice even finish, a little dry on the end. Excellent beer.

Bottle also from Riversbend: This one pours a pretty dark brown, almost black. Smell is a bit of coffee with some raisin and plum on the background. Taste is fairly roasty, but the roasted flavor is quickly over powered by those dark fruits. The roastiness is also complimented by just a hint of bitterness and then that fruit shows up and makes this a nice drinking beer.

Bottle from River’s Bend. Poured black color with an average frothy brown head that diminished slowly with good lacing. Moderate roasted coffee and sweet fruit aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture. Medium dark sweet flavor with medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. Solid complex beer that went well with a good cigar.

Deep brown,small tan head.Light alcoholic brown sugar nose. Roasty start,dry mocha mid, small bitter bite at end. Lightly smoked

I had this at Redlight. It poured a dark brown color with a thin tan head from the bottle. The aroma was of roasted and crystal malts with a little bit of cocoa and coffe in there as well. The taste is of the same with the sweet chocolate and roasted malts most prevelant. It had a good mouthfeel and medium bodied. It wasn’t as thick as some of the better porters. The finish was dry and slightly bitter from the carbonation. I didn’t get much of the smokey flavor that it said. An easy drinking porter though.

Pours a dark brown color with a tan head. Aroma is of roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, molasses, some smokiness, and dark fruits. Decently thick on the palate for a porter. Flavor is of chocolate and molasses strong up front giving way to a subtle coffee and dark fruit flavor. Dry and slightly bitter on the finish. An overall decent porter.

Very pleasantly surprised by this, and I feel like I want a case. A deep inky pour with a very modest head. The initial flavor is roasty with a bit of a dry finish. But as this warms, it gets very rich and chocolatey, with warming malts and a very smooth mouthfeel. It could be a bit thicker, but this is really quite good.