New Glarus Unplugged Smoke on the Porter

Formerly brewed at New Glarus Brewing Company
Style: Smoked
New Glarus, Wisconsin USA

Deep opaque and cherry color with a tannish head that remains throughout the session. Aroma mimics a small town Wisconsin (German) butcher shop combined with a campfire. Flavor is soot, chocolate and apple wood. Medium to full bodied, creamy smoky texture. Short bitter finish.

Aroma of woodsy smoke with some light toffee and caramel. The nose is certainly very subtle, but inviting nevertheless. The beer appears black with red tints and there is a sand colored one finger head. The sweet malt, nuttiness, and cream is the first thing you taste before the smoke saunters in. The smoke is the dominant flavor, though it never seems hammy, artificial, or overpowering, some of the things than can take away from other examples of the style, at least fresh ones. The sweet maltiness and roast in the underlying porter really help the beer shine. This really is one of the most rounded smoked beers, porter or otherwise, that I have had. The New Glarus Unplugged series seem to be one winner after the next. Well done!

12 oz. bottle - Poured blackish brown with beige head. Aroma is quite smokey with some coffee and chocolate notes. Nice creamy beer with well balanced chocolate malt flavor leaving you with a dry slightly smokey finish. A good brew bot not something I could drink evry day.

Bottled. Nice black center with some very dark brown edges and a light beige film capping the surface. Light lacing eventually settles down to some white spots on the glass edges. Aroma is a thick and pleasant barbecue smoke with a touch of fresh cut wood notes and chocolate malts hiding behind everything. Really nice flavor that starts with a strong smoke statement with a touch of saltiness that re-creates the nose of a true meat smokehouse! Nice! Dark chocolates are found throughout with robust black malts. Medium bodied with a carbonated sting in the finish, slight bitterness lingers, but the smoked notes fade rather quickly. Intriguing!

Black with a thick, creamy long lasting chocolate head. Light aroma of smoke, roasted malts and chocolate. Flavor is roasted malts and chocolate. Thin creamy body with a nice smoked finish. Good beer.

12 oz bottle. Poured a dark, nearly opaque brown. When held up to the light one can see a bit of deep amber, but that’s it. It’s easy to see this is a full-bodied brew. A bit of a tan head stuck around. Smoked, malty aroma, very mild. But the flavor, wow. Smoked flavor really cut through, but it gave way quickly to a sustained malt taste with delicious chocolate notes. Again, this is a full-bodied beer, and one can definitely feel it. I was a bit disappointed that the smoke flavor didn’t linger, but some may enjoy its nuanced character. Overall a great porter.

Bottle@Dr.Bills Poured redish brown with a ring head. A mild yeast aroma stood out amoung the smoke and chocolate and continued on as it hits your palate.

Very nice, but this wants to be a Porter much more than it wants to be a Rauchbier, and my preference is for the latter. Nice pour, a nearly black dark brown body with a substantial beige head that coats the glass with spidery Belgian lacing. The aroma is fairly strong with the bacon and smoked ham, but then the roasted malt trailed by some chocolate surges in too aggressively and lessens the effect. The bacon-sausage-ham bounces back even stronger in the flavor, the barley-coffee-chocolate letting it run the show. Very nice beer, but I’d like it more if NG meated up the aroma some more.

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