Portsmouth Imperial Porter

Bottle courtesy Gillard. Pours a striking mahogany with tan head and spotty lacing. The aroma is mostly caramel and dark fruity esters to go along with some toffee and even more caramel. The taste starts with roastiness, dark fruity esters and some caramel. By midway a tasty dry burnt malt note intercedes and takes over the flavor adding balance to the sweet way the beer started. It ends even, smooth and dry with fading dark fruitiness. Love the flavor here. Nice.

22oz bottle courtesy of MrRetardedMonkey poured into a tulip. Pours dark brown out of the bottle and sits almost completely black in the glass. Hints of mahogany show through the edges. The tan head is huge and fluffy, leaving great lacing and maintaining a cap throughout. The aroma is mostly dark chocolate malts and some coffee with a slightly toasted character overall. It’s a little light in the aroma for a Baltic porter honestly, but great for a regular porter. The taste was a little more robust than the aroma suggested with a thicker dark malt backbone with a sweet chocolate layer and some roasted coffee in the mix. The finish actually has a slight hop bitterness to it that I definitely didn’t get in the aroma. The mouthfeel is light to medium bodied for an imperial porter, though it’s pretty solid given the ABV. I’m not exactly sure how to categorize this beer. I reallly enjoyed it and it’s extremely drinkable. I don’t think it stands up to the better Baltic/imperial porters out there as it’s much lighter in taste and body than those. Anyway, a very good porter.

Bottle. Thanks to Gillard for sharing! Poured black with brown edges and a thin light beige head. Nose is chocolate and roasted malt. Flavor is very roasted with hints of bitter chocolate, coffee, hard roasted malt, and maybe a touch of anise. Finishes roasted with mild bitterness.

Bottle courtesy of Gillard. Poured a brown/black. Cocoa, coffee, vanilla, some anise and roast notes in the nose. Flavor is much of the same with some nice bitterness. Medium body and not so "imperial" at 6.5%, but a nice porter none the less.

Wow. Gillard is the man. The tyranny of Portsmouth is all their bottles look the same so I have to read closely to figure out what si being poured. Very roasty porter. Pours cola brown with a small off-white head. Nose is dark chocolate, licorice, and coffee. Bitter to the last the flavor is on par with the nose. Medium bodied and not bad.

courtesy of gillard who had to go through many man pile to get this bottle. Pours dark brown, with off white head. Aroma and taste, malty with chocolate, light body for an imperial, hints of nuts along with some dark fruits.

Bottle, courtesy Gillard. Dark brown pour, frothy lacing, small bubbly head. Aroma has strong notes of toffee, dark chocolate and slight roast. Flavor is big on smooth chocolate with dry grain, coarse elements of coffee and vanilla and some molasses, too. Medium-bodied, easy to drink and balanced. Not bad overall.

Draught at the brewery. Dark, with ruby edges, small off white head. Aroma is large amounts of chocolate, lactose, licorice, raisin. Flavor is quite malty, creamy, touch of vanilla. Seems lighter in alcohol than I would expect.