Ramapo Valley Suffern Station Porter

Brewed by Ramapo Valley Brewery
Style: Porter
Hilburn, New York USA

Dark chestnut brown colour. Toasty, coffeeish aroma - fresh dark grains, yum. Dry, slightly burned palate with a firm hop bitterness. Retronasal esters.

(brewtopia04) Creamy beige head atop clear mahogany body. Aroma is medium sweet, coffee, roasty, some chocolate. Taste is medium sweet, coffee, some chocolate, and grapefruit that serves as good balance. Medium body, bit of acidity.

On tap at Brewtopia 2004... Sparkling clear, copper ale with a small, creamy, beige head. Chocolate, vanilla and coffee in the aroma. Well-balanced, roasted flavor which pretty much matches the nose, but is a bit thin and lifeless. Medium-bodied with an oily mouthfeel and lively carbonation. Short, crisp, clean finish with a blast of cocoa at the very end.

This one poured brown in color. The server said they were trying a new malt with this, and the color was more amber than dark brown. Aroma of malt, chocoff. Tastes malty, with some nuts and chocoff in the finish. Very light in body for a porter, and not real complex.

Bottle. Black body with a large fluffy tan head. (4+) Nutty roast aroma is dry, not really coffee or chocolate like. Dry woody roast flavour is almost smokey like food cooked over a campfire. Light bittereness is almost tart and lingers long into the aftertaste. Light chocolate notes make brief cameos under the dry superceding roast. Medium palate, dry finish grabs at the back of the throat. Interesting beer, but not really up my alley. Too roasty and dry. Thanks for Lou18 for the chance to try it!

Dark color with roasted barley aroma and flavors of caramel and mellow coffee. A bit mellow for my liking, but with the college crowd that comes here, not need to make anything too big, I suppose.

In short: An oxidized cardboard flavoured dark ale. Bad bottle
How: Bottle 12oz. Age unknown. Consumed 6 months after purchase but I suspect this is old stock
The look: Dark redish-mahogany body topped by a large beige head
In long: Cardboard on the nose. This is oxidised. Over the top carbonation, burnt cardboard and ferrous notes is pretty much all I got from this bottle. By trying very hard I detected some chocolate. I bought the bottle in a little beer store in Princeton and drank it six months later but by the taste of it I suspect this bottle had been sitting on the shelves of this little quiet store for a very long time. Looks like Princeton University in not a drunk partygoers hang-out. Who would have thought.

[re-rate] After sampling this again, I don't quite know what was wrong with me the first time - this is a decent beer, but nothing about it is a "good porter" - it's actually quite light in color, and the flavor is more like a middle-of-the-road scotch ale than anything else - still good, but not worth the rave review I gave it initially - [bottled] Pour is quite dark, but head is minimal, however the lacing it leaves behind is attractive - aroma of cocoa, carmelized brown sugar, and chocolate milk - medium bodied with low carbonation - initial flavors are pretty standard (though tasty) porter flavors like coffee and chocolate - there is a certain combination of yeastiness, plums and chocolate later on that remind me less of a porter, and more of an abbey quad mixed with a porter - quite interesting - lingering finish of pudding and bread - a good porter if ever I've had one.