San Diego Choco-Latte Porter

Brewed by San Diego Brewing Company
Style: Porter
San Diego, California USA

On tap. Pours a very dark brown - almost black - with a vague reddish hue and a creamy beige head. Intense chocolate aroma combined with the toasted malts. Quite a solid body, lots of chocolate, roasted malt and a coffee bitterness that comes late and balances the chocolate sweetness quite well. Some malt bitterness in the finish, that also holds some alcohol. 070709

From tap at the brewpub. Pours dark brown to fully black with a small tan head. Aroma is dark roasted malt and mild acidic dark chocolate. Sweet chocolate flavoured, light roasted and vague toffee like. Light acidic and roasted malt flavoured finish. Nice lasting chocolate note into the far finish.

Date: 12/04/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub

clear dark brown, lasting fine tan head, lots of drippy lace, strong chocolate and coffee aroma, rich chocolate flavor with lots of coffee character, nice sweetness bring out the chocolate and balances the coffee,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

Hazy dark brown. Coffee bean and spoiled milk, crap vanilla. Like a gas station coffee drink. Palate is all about chocolate syrup grossness. I don’t like Nestle Quick. Thin body. Fades into cloying nothingness. A bad idea, executed poorly.

on nitro-pours a retaining light brown head and black color. Aroma is dark malt-roasty/coffee/chocolate/nutty, acidity. Taste is dark malt-cocoa powder, dark malt-roasty/coffee/chocolate/nutty, acidity. A bit on the light side of medium body. Not my style.

Tap at SDBC. Very dark brown-black beer with a creamy tan nitro head. Aroma is fairly nice. Lots of soft cocoa and chocolate malt. A kiss of coffee but it’s much sweet than the aroma suggests. The sweetness works though and rather than making the beer seem sugary it makes it drink like sweet milk chocolate. Very soft creamy palate with a touch of light toasty bitterness. Pretty damn solid beer, really.

On tap (nitro) @ San Diego Brewing brewpub. Pours out deep dark brown with the classic creamy tan nitro tapped head and sheet lacing. There is a mild aroma of roasted malts, coffee and malt sweetness. The nose could be a bit bolder. The initial taste was one of those WOW experiences. It bursts with rich velvety dark chocolate, chocolate covered malt balls and coffee, yum. Great mouth feel too. I also get mild vanilla and then moments of burnt malts. The classic Porter burnt (or highly roasted) malts take a back seat to the chocolate malts and coffee. Great tasting brew that seems to include a bit of a heavy cream Latte type sensation.

Tap @ brewpub. Cola-colored brown. Aroma of cake and processed coffee drinks like Starbucks frappe. Tastes like vanilla flavoring or extract. Malt is lost, got hardly any roastiness or robustness. Shocked at the otherwise high ratings.