Mendocino Winter Ale (04/05 - Porter)

Formerly brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Porter
Saratoga Springs, New York USA

Courtesy boboski. Poured an opaque black color with a quickly dissipating tan head. The aroma is interesting - a moderate chocolate/cocoa influence along with some kind of spice, perhaps licorice/anise. Coffee and raost flavors blend and lead to a hop/roast finish which is smooth. Very nice.

chocolate and coffee in the aroma.Ours black with a slight tan head.Lots of coffee in the flavor.Alittle thin with a bitter coffee finish.

This beer sucked for the fisrt year, was decent in it’s second year....and now: Were it not for the disdain I feel for this brewery via the Mendocino lineup, I might be able to afford this one a less biased rating. I’ll give it a shot anyhow. Very nice pour, deep brown interwoven with auburn highlights. Light tan head, fading fast. Hops appear first in the aroma, preceding a great porter whiff. Citrusy hoppiness, then a nice blend of caramel, chocolate and overripe plantain. Medium bodied, though not as thick as I had hoped, seems like most beer made at Saratoga is thinned before bottling so as to have broader appeal. It’s probably just me. I think this is well done, maybe the best beer I’ve had from this brewer (save the Lenny’s RIPA), but it is missing some allure, some knockout punch. I think possibly what’s missing is a more aggressive malt backbone. Hmmm.

Bottle from Party Town, KY. Poured a dark black with an average brown head that diminished slowly with good lacing. Aroma was complex roasted malt and hop. Medium body with a smooth texture. Complex roasted malty flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. Very good brew.

12 oz bottle. I have a few so thanks to whoever sent it. Pours a dark brown near black with a small tan head. Tastes like a very hoppy grapefruity porter. Is good, but would be better with a bit less hops. Save the grapefruit for the IPAs please...Medium body. Easy to drink...

From a 12 oz. bottle, winter 2004-05 release, brewed primarily for the east coast market. Poured a dark coffee brown with a foamy, creamy tan head that settled into a thin bubbly lacing, minimal amount of sticking. Aromas of roasted caramel and chocolate malts, molasses and a very subtle citrus. Good, even, moderate carbonation and a malty crisp, creamy smooth medium-full bodied mouthfeel. Nice, pleasant porter taste, roasted malty, caramel, chocolate and caramelized sugar, citrus hoppiness shows up just past the middle, the alcohol provides a soft warming in the palate, and a roasted malty finish. An easy, smooth drinkability, a decent one-time only winter porter, for me, one of Mendocino better releases.

12 oz bottle, via Goldtwins. Pours an extremely dark black colored body under a small foamy brown head that faded to a thin film. Some light does pass through the edges though. Aroma is quite strong, loaded with chocolate malt, almost fudgecake like. Some coffee, roast, light chalk, and light licorice. Very robust all around. Flavor is quite dry and chalky, lots of bitter chocolate, roast, and espresso. Finishes with some hoppy bitterness, caramel, and burnt malt. Mouthfeel is full bodied, slightly oily in texture, with moderate fizzy carbonation. Finishes with a little bit of a cloying stickiness. A pretty nice Porter. Quite robust and full of flavor.

The beer is an opaque black color that is topped by an initially one-finger thick, fairly quickly disappearing, dirt brown, dark tan colored head. The aroma has definitely taken on an aged character. It is certainly not overtly oxidized, but has picked up notes of concentrated aged malt and burnt sherry. Condensed notes of dark chocolate and dark roast coffee mix quite well and the combination of the two is perhaps the most noticeable part of the aroma. A touch of dry, burnt, grain husk aromatics adds an almost chalky note and a touch of a burnt acidity to the aroma.

There is a touch of soft creaminess to the feel of this beer. On the whole it is fairly light, but does have a certain richness that helps it to linger on the tongue. The finish has a nice chocolate note to it that is almost soft enough to be described as a dark milk chocolate character. Smooth roasted notes of espresso and burnt malt add a touch of acidity to the finish, but definitely a dark grain derived bitterness as well. There is a note of burnt fruitiness here, noticeable in both the aroma and flavor (perhaps more so in the aroma), that reminds me of burnt figs. A malty sweet middle is here as well, it is not as apparent as it’s intensity would suggest as the roast flavors of this beer help to hold it in check quite well.

Really in the end the smooth chocolaty, malty middle is what stands out the most to me here. This beer is very drinkable, actually down right quaffable. The flavors show less age than the aroma might suggest, though I think that the body has likely lightened up a bit over the past couple years.