Mad River Steelhead Scotch Porter

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

Pours a near-black dark brown with a creamy light brown head that does some fancy lacing. The aroma is nicely roasted barly and malts. Some herbal hopping is noticeable and, better yet, a sllight peat smoke aroma as well. The flavor is a smoked and roasted barley along with bitter chocolate, coffee, and a dash of hop bitterness. Nice and creamy, this has a lingering smokey, roasty finish. Good stuff.

Bottle. Pours opaque blackness with a tall frothy tan head. Nose is hoppy and chocolaty with big coffee notes. Dark roasted malts, hops, coffee, dark bittersweet chocolate and light peatiness make up the whole fo the taste. Body is medium with some creaminess and a lingering bitterness. Finish is more coffee, dark chocolate, hops, light smokiness, roasted malts and smoldering wood notes. Nice!

Very dark brown with an off-white head. Aroma is of chocolate and coffee. Very creamy chocolatey flavor with just a hint of smoke and malts. Greath mouthfeel. Very enjoyable beer.

Very nice combination of the two styles. Pours mostly like a porter- deep dark brown with a beige head and low to med. carbonation. Aroma is initially a deep peaty smoke, then turns into an almost sweet honey bbq then lets in hints of chocolate as it warms. Good full robust flavor with a good mouthfeel. roasted, chocolate and peated malts give a great complexity and is balanced well with some hops in the end.

Black with little head. Coffee and caramel aroma. Flavor of bitter coffee, maple and smoke. Falls off severely in the finish. This brew didn’t quite come together for me.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jeffin7, thanks Jeff!) It’s pretty pathetic that I had to trade with a guy in Washington, DC to get this damn California beer, and I live in frigging California! Never once have seen this beer in SoCal. Oh well, enough time wasted on ranting, I’m anxious to finally try this beer. The nose is nice, but fairly light overall, with a mild aromas of roast, chocolate and hops. This is a pretty unique tasting porter, dominated by a strong, moderately bitter roastiness, but the mild smokiness of the peated malt comes alive in the finish. Light sweetness is minimal, not really cutting into the dry, smoky roastiness. Average body and mouthfeel for a porter, which is to say, it’s fairly substantial. Deep, dark brown color, fully opaque except at the edges where it’s ruddy brown. The tan head really has to work at it just to build a ¼ inch of height, but fades quickly into oblivion. With the exception of the weak heading, I’d say this beer was worth the wait.

Black colored with a foamy light brown head. Very nice and full aroma. Sweet and roasted with chocolaty and creamy notes and some hops also. Good roasted flavor, creamy and chocolaty with a fine bitterness. Easy drinkable and very tasty. Foamy mouthfull. An excellent porter!

[First rating in Denmark is the one that counts] A black beer with a nice brown disappearing head. The aroma is of roasted malt and chocolate. The flavor is sweet roasted with notes of malt and chocolate.

[Second rating in DC] A red-brown beer with a thin brown head. The aroma is sweet slightly hopped and slightly roasted. The flavor is sweet with a light touch of roasted malt, leading to a dry bitter end. What is a Scotch Porter? [6/4/6/3/13]

This is by far the biggest deviance I’ve ever had in a rerate - I wonder what made the difference, the second rating wasn’t a bad bottle, but ofcourse it might have been old?