Sand Creek Imperial Porter

Brewed by Sand Creek Brewing Co. (Pioneer/Wisconsin Brewing Co.)
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Black River Falls, Wisconsin USA

Courtesy CaptainCougar. Poured a dark, almost black color with a thin light tan head. Light alcohol and roast on the aroma, a tad solventy and sweet. Taste is a bit nutty with some alcohol and roast in the finish. It achieves a nice tenuous balance between the alcohol and roast. Tasty, if uneven.

Courtesy CaptainCougar. Bottle. Thick black pour with a small tan head. Thick caramel malt, candy apple, and hop aroma. Thick malty, sweet chocolate, and hop taste. Reminds me of a baltic porter. Finishes really nice, this is what I really like.

Deep translucent brown body, medium creamy tan head. Aroma of chocolate, roasted malts, molasses, dark fruits, and sweet, burnt sugars. Body is vinous, with red grape characteristics apparent on the first sip. Strong chocolate notes dominate otherwise. Also coffee and burnt sugars. Sweet, silky, rich body. Nice beer.

Courtesy CaptainCougar. Pours a very dark brown, with a small light brown head. Smells of light chocolate, malt, and mild roast. Pretty standard, nothing too exciting so far. The flavor was much of the same, although had an usual mettalic taste to it, that turned me off a bit. Fairly chocolatey, with light roasty characters. Pretty standard porter, nothing special though.

Black pour with a fleeting tan head. Coffee, chocolate and dark caramel aroma. A bit too much alcohol aroma for me though. The flavor is not overly sweet, lots of dark roasted coffee and a dry touch to the finish. Not bad. Thanks to Ugsmash for this one.

12 oz bottle served at cellar temperature. Poured an opaque black color, but wasn’t as thick/oily as the Leinenkugel Big Eddy I just tried. The head was light tan and reduced after a minute or so to a thin film. Aroma was of light molasses, cereal grain, and distinct graham cracker. Attractive nose, but not much complexity. Medium bodied, but lighter than I had expected. Delicately sweet on the tongue. Tasted of chocolate, subdued raisin, and a splash of coffee. I didn’t get much in the way of alcohol flavor. Not overly complex, but a decent beer nonetheless.

12 oz. twist-off bottle, no freshness date or ABV information, sampled in a pint glass. Not a bad start, poured a dark chocolate brown with a light brown head of creamy foam, good retention and a small amount of sticky lace at the brim of the glass. A faint nose for an imperial porter, lightly roasted touches of chocolate and coffee that are a bit overwhelmed by the sour lactic aroma, blackberries and cream-like, hints of sweet caramel. The alcohol is barely noticeable, mixes with the sour lactic scent. Smooth full-ish feeling body, the carbonation fades towards the end, leading to a little wateriness in the finish. Lightly roasted malts, chocolate, caramelized sugar and coffee tastes that mesh with sour lactic cream. A subtle citric hop emerges at the finish, adding a soft bitterness to the malty finale. The lactic acidity is mild and the malts only have a trace of roasted bitterness. The alcohol is not really that noticeable, I would like to know the ABV, I’m guessing somewhere in 7% neighborhood, and takes on the lactic flavors for a very low temperature warmth in the palate. An decent Imperial Porter with a quaffable drinkability, overall, not that bad.

Thanks to iowaherkeye for the bottle. Black body with traces of garnet at the edges which is topped with a mocha colored head. A sickeningly sweet smell came from this one. It’s like I walked into a low quality chocolate factory where they spilled coffee into a vat of chocolate. This smell also makes me think of urinal cakes and bad cigarette smoke. The taste has light notes of sugar sweetened coffee. There is also a little bit of milk chocolate and raisins in the finish. The body is fairly thin and helps this go down easy. At least the taste is much better than the smell. I am obviously missing something that others see in this beer.