Middle Ages The Duke Of Winship

Brewed by Middle Ages Brewing
Style: Porter
Syracuse, New York USA

Bottle from Lubière : Poured a dark color ale with a big foamy head with good retention. Aroma is quite strong with peat and bitter roasted malt. Taste is reminiscent of a mix between a scotch ale and a porter with a nice dose of peat that mix very well with roasted bitter malt with a nice sweet touch. Body is above average and medium level of alcohol makes it a beer I could enjoy often. Very nice beer that doesn’t seem to fall under a particular style.

(cask @ The Old Toad - Rochester, NY) Dark black with a nice puffy tan head. I really love the look of cask beers. Mild and roasty chocolate and toasted malt aroma. Maybe some hops in there as well. Taste begins with a mild roasty malt flavor and a smooth coffee middle with a slight hop finish. Leaves some bitterness on the palate. Real nice porter.

Cask conditioned at Mahars. Pours very dark with a tiny head that does actually lace. Aroma is very faint, a bit of hops. Flavor is like licking tape and water, not too appealling.

Bottle shared with tupalev. Pours a very dark reddish-brown with an average size diminishing frothy off-white head. Sweet aroma of chocolate and caramel malt. Flavour also sweet and malty, some chocolate and some very mild wood and smoke -- I can definitely taste the Scotch Ale aspect of it though I’m not so certain it works that well. Thin bodied. A decent Porter but a bit dissapointing.

Bottle, shared with and courtesy of blankboy. Decent sweet porter like aroma - lots of chocolate malt but not really burnt/roasted - odd but nice. Very dark brown, small white head. Thin, yet carbonated and tingly. Ok taste - Kind of weird like the aroma. Some chocolate, slightly sour, some dark fruit - not bad, but not great. I read the description afterwards that said it was a mix of a Scottish Ale and a Porter and that makes sense I guess. Not entirely successful but interesting.

Bottle (12oz). Poured almost opaque reddish-black with a small quick-diminishing light-brown head. Rich but mild dark roast malt, hints of espresso and roast nuts, aroma also has prune, cola and molasses character, with detectable resiny hops and quite a lot of yeast - I fully agree with BeerLover, this seems a happy union of scotch ale and full-roast porter. Taste reminds me of a flatter, thinner, slightly burnt Samuel Smith Imperial Stout - strong bitter roast character muted by lots of malt and dark fruit, longish mostly bitter finish. Mouthfeel almost oily - flat and bitter, quite nice. Really strong beer, I"m most impressed.

This is a very interesting beer, in the fact that it is a "Scotch Porter", which marries the flavors and aromas of a Scotch Ale, with that of a robust Porter. I’ve only had a handful of examples of this hybrid style, and The Duke might indeed by my all time favorite. This is a wonderful melding of two of my favorite beer styles. It has the sweet malty and strong character of a Scotch ale, with the roasty and coffee notes of a robust porter. The Duke of Windship is just bursting with flavor and character, and commands your attention. The Duke of Winship Ale pours to a beautiful deep brown to black color with a tan head that fades, and a soft to moderate amount of carbonation. The nose on this beer just explodes with robust character. Aromas of sweet malt, caramel, toffee, roasted coffee, dark chocolate, and earthy yeast aromas flood the nose. The palate is rich and full on the tongue with lots of big, robust flavors. Sweet malt, toffee, butter scotch, chocolate, coffee, and hints of dark roast glide over the tongue. The Duke of Windship finishes with more complex sweet and dark malt flavors, some earthy yeast flavor, and ends with a slightly roasted coffee, slightly warming, finish. This is a very complex and delicious beer with a lot going on in the glass. This is the type of beer you can just sit back with an enjoy as an after dinner drink, or as I did, as a night cap while reading just before bed. At the brewery, you can enjoy free samples of this beer and a number of other taps that flow, and the crew at Middle Ages are not shy with the samples. I would not pair this beer with food, but if you did, I believe it would be the perfect foil to a rich and creamy desert of NY Style cheese cake, or death by chocolate.

A scotch porter, this sounds good. The look of it is enticing: a rich caramel colored thin head atop a medium dark brown body with some brown and burgundy hues in there as well. Somewhat sweet buttery scotch nose, somewhat buttery flavor as well. Seems to be pretty mild on the porter side of things, light toast and brown sugar flavor, slightly assertive smoke on the back of the tongue. Sweet overall with a decent woody scotch residue in the finish. Good stuff all around.