Selins Grove Bourbon Cask Porter

Formerly brewed at Selins Grove Brewing Co.
Style: Porter
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania USA

On cask, looks as the regular porter does. Definite notes of toast and vanilla. Pleasantly accented vanilla brings the biscuit through and subdues the anise/cola flavors, which I still find to be a problem after the switch to the new brewhouse. Slightly slicker mouthfeel but still retains some creaminess. The right amount of bourbon for this lighter beer. Any more and this lovely low-alc porter would have been overwhelmed. Burps of sweet, roasty malt. In the end, the chocolately-ness is a bit subdued, but this is still a very nice beer.

On cask at brewpub. Black pour with a small but very creamy light brown head that fades to a thin ring after a few minutes. Aroma is rather light overall but very pleasing, bourbon up front with the chocolate and roasted notes in the background. Bourbon flavor is very subtle compared to many of the barrel aged beers that I have recently had. This truely does have the integrity of the base beer in tact. It clearly tastes like the White Horse Porter with the bourbon showing through most predominatly on the finish. Mouthfeel was light to medium bodied with just a perfect creamy texture from being on cask. Minimal to no carbonation as expected. This scored just two ticks above my rating for White Horse Porter. However it’s hard to say if it was because of the bourbon aging or the cask conditioning. The combination of the two really elevate this beer to a new level, but it’s hard for me to seperate the aspect that I liked more. Let’s just say it got an extra 0.1 for the bourbon, and an extra 0.1 for the cask conditioning. Only 1 55 gallon barrel of this, so get there quick if you can.