Mad River Steelhead Scotch Porter

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

The complex aroma shows off strong peated malts, caramel, chocolate malt, hops, cocoa, and coffee. The flavor whcih follows is loaded with what is the backbone of this beer: peated malt; then come tropical fruits and serious caramel malt sweetness. Slightly acidic and a legitimate amount of bitterness. The sediment on the bottom of the approached a quarter inch of thickness. And this isn’t bottle conditioned either. Makes me wonder how long this has been sitting. This beer gets mad style points for making a crossbreed Scotch ale/Porter with peatiness having the ability to rival any in its class. Mad River has a limited list of beers but they are making some very solid beer.

Excellent example of the hybid style "Scotch Porter". This beer has excellent sweet malty and toffee notes, married with aromas and flavors of dark chocolate, coffee, and roast. Steel Head Scotch Porter pours to a beautiful deep brown color, with a thick and creamy tan head, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic, with aromas of sweet malt, toffee, dark chocolate, and roast. The palate is soft and fat on the tongue, with lots of good sweet malty flavor, paired with dark chocolate, and coffee flavors. This beer finishes with more great malt flavors, then ends with some roasty and dry notes, that take the cloying edge off this beer. Delicious beer that works well as an after dinner drink, or a perfect match to a rich desert.

This is a VERY GOOD beer. Similar to a Kostrizer in taste with deep, rich, chocolaty and toasty (and even smokey) flavors. Beer pours like a real beer should, thicker appearness like a Guiness, but with a frothy head. Definitely recommended for darker beer lovers.

i love this beer i could drink it any time and all the time. It is rated number 1 on my list of porters. Nobody even comes close. It has just the right amount of hops.

Pours a very deep garnet wih a fluffy, off-white head. Pronounced toffee nose with slight smoke. Bitter chocolate flavor with raisin and cherries. Slightly smoked malt with a mild hop balance. Finishes bitter. A real nice porter and a great find for the Rochester area!

Bottle: Nice and dark midnight crimson color with a thin but volcanic tan head. My first impression of the aroma was almost hoppy; the more I smell, I get more roasty java, but that floral hoppieness remains. Interesting. What a nice blend of flavors here ... lightly smoky and roasted malt to be sure, but there’s also additional aspects of lightly citric hoppiness, bitter nuttiness and even a little bitter chocolate. Outstanding porter. (#2753, 3/16/2007)

Bottle. Wow! A local brew that is really, really good. This is how a porter should be....like 100,000 mile crankcase oil. Aroma is smokey, with chocolate overtones. Feels great in the mouth, and was good to the very last drop. I am going to get more of this.

Smooth, drinkable, delicious. Black opaque. Not much head. Very slight citrus flavour. I’m gonna let the next one warm up a bit before drinking. Is this bottle conditioned? I’ve got some sediment here.