Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter

Brewed by Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Porter
Middlebury, Vermont USA

Okay, this is my favorite style and this beer had the benefit of being tasted side by side with a sample of the upcoming Michelob Porter. Night and day. This has flavor, mouthfeel, bitterness, notes of hickory, burnt coffee, molasses, dark chocolate. The Michelob had nothing.

Pours almost opaque with a dissipating head. The aroma is something else. Sometimes, it has a very pleasant roasty, burnt malt aroma. Sometimes, I smell it again, and I just get the aroma of a porta-potty. It’s really odd. The flavor is like an off-shoot of watered down poop that sometimes comes out a little sweet. The mouthfeel is watery thin. This beer kind of makes me sad. It’s like the Poo-Pipe Porter.

Shared w/ crowderm and hillfiiiiire. Aroma: well, we all agreed, sometimes it smells interesting, but pretty good...and other times it’s more like poop. Seriously, on every other smelling it switches between poo masking roastiness and other times the poo is more like caramel and dirt with roastiness, maybe a little coffee in there too. So the 4 for aroma is combo of a 3 and a 6.5 for the poo and non-poo, respectively. Flavor is pretty good i.e. no poop side. Caramel and fairly roasted, which I like, but still a bit like dirt. Unfortunately, the major downfall here is the wateriness. And while the frequency of poo sniffs decreases as it warms, the magnitude of wateriness increases. Mouthfeel would be very good, if it was only thicker. Hops are noticeable in the finish.

Pours a thin redish black with very little head. The aroma goes back and forth between poop and a decent scent of dark roasted malts. The flavor is decent - pure roasted malts with a bit a chocolate. The finish is decently clean. The palate is pretty weak - a bit thinner than the ideal porter. Overall OK, but not great.

Yup liked it. Pretty thin and weak, even for a porter. This is like decaffinated porter lite. There is a good deal of flavor however, even if it doesn’t linger with the swallow. Nice and light are really the only ways I can think to describe this guy, not bad.

A good porter but not full bodied enough. A nice dark color as to be expected. But just not enough flavorable body.

Pours very dark with a nice lively head. Has aromas of roasted nuts and coffee and a smooth taste of coffee grounds with a hint of sweetness in the finish. Very nice.

Bottle: Dark brown/black color, light tan head and decent lacing. The nose is dry with some maple, vanilla, subtle chocolate and coffee notes. The flavor is balanced, a nice maple syrup sweetness with some nutty almond character pairs well with the subtle roasted character. The finish is pleasing and a bit smoky. Good porter.