Mississippi Mud Black & Tan

Brewed by Matt Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Utica, New York USA

I confess to being taken in by the packaging--I love this oversize bottle (I took off the plastic label and saved the jug for around-the-house use), though the beer inside wasn’t great. Moderate amber color (it is really unfair to call this a porter, if you’re so inclined because of the base), and substantially carbonated. General malty profile and rather simple, at times giving a more substantial hop character than a roasted one. But even then, it is pretty tame. Still, drinkable and kind of good in way--having a nice big 32 ounce jug you are inclined to think of this as an "around the house"/after lawnmowing beer, rather than a beer to savor.

not real great, instead of black and tan I suggest they change it to tan and tan.pours an odd brownish red, fairly nice head, smells of a cheap lager. taste is predominantly sweet no real dark roasted flavors, I only have one question, why is a beer called mississippi mud brewed in New York no where near the mississippi?

Quart bottle with a very well-designed visual element. The beer seems to waver a bit -- at one moment the aroma seems stale and slighly skunky, then later it seems bready and malty. Similarly with the flavor, it’s a well-proportioned mix if you like more lager than porter, but somehow it seems to have also found a cardboard element at the fulcrum of this "balance of the scales". Reasonably priced (paid $3 for a quart) and rather thirst quenching; just don’t take Mississippi Mud as a serious representation of the style.

This is one of the better bottled black and tans. Very smooth drinking for a darker beer. Not bad, but not the best. Brown colour with slight tan head.

(1 quart bottle: $2.99 at BevMo in San Diego/Carmel Mountain, CA) The black:tan ratio of this black and tan has way too much tan as the color is really just a dark amber. Now that I’m over the initial surprise, it’s actually a pretty nice looking beer. It pours a good size, light tan head that slowly subsides to a thin layer (leaving no lace), but is aided by significant carbonation bubbles rising slowly through the beer. Most of the bubbles are very tiny, and these rise slowly as if the beer was really syrupy (which is isn’t), but the occasional large bubble speeds to the top in great haste. The nose isn’t roasty, but instead smells like an English ale, somewhat nutty, very lightly hoppy, but I think I detect a bit of cardboard too. Likewise, the mild flavor is somewhat nutty and sweet, lightly caramely, and minimally bitter. This smooth, light-to-medium bodied beer is supposed to combine a "robust" English porter with a Continental pilsner, but with the obvious lack of roastiness, either the porter isn’t very robust, or there’s hardly any porter in the mix. It’s light flavored, easy to drink and pleasant enough, but Mississippi Mud is blatant misleading branding.

what a great name for a beer not a big fan of the black and tan, but a very cool bottle. something different that is worth a try

This was my first encounter with this beer. Sampled from an interestingly shaped 16 oz bottle this beer poured a medium caramel color with a large light tan head. The aroma is light sour malt with a hint of hops. The flavor is light sour malt with a hint of hops as well. There is a bitter sour malt finish.

Big Quart bottle served cool. Sweet caramel and hops smell. Chocolate brown color and created a medium head when poured. Tastes is somewhere between a decent quality lager and a macro brew stout but closer to the lager in mouth feel and malt character. Somewhat toasty and chocolate like. In many respects this could be called a Black and Tan "light." I was expecting something thicker, more like mud but still not a bad beer. Nice bottle too.