Sierra Nevada Porter

Sierra Nevada’s porter is a beer I desperately wanted to like, just so I could hang with all the cool kids with their Sierra Nevada brews, but again the porter falters in my tests. The body is entirely black, which seems atypical for a porter. The inch thick medium brown head looks the part for the porter though, slowly permitting a vegetable aroma to permeate to the nose. Asparagus and brussel sprouts start the scent, divulging even more vegetal notes before moving to creamy chocolate and a richness that reveberates in the nose like a struck tuning fork. The flavor is bitter, moreso than I expected or wanted, but still lively in palate. In fact, there’s so much movement at first that all other flavors are muted. A little rest and the beer washes loosely over the tongue with well kilned malts, harshly bitter chocolate, Dr. pepper and artifical grape soda flavors. This lasts briefly, before an equally murky aftertaste complete with tobacco notes takes over. It’s flavorful, but the balance is poor and the bitterness given too much leeway.

Bottle. Aroma is a bit roasted with lots of coffee and chocolat. Taste is a bit sweet and fruity with some malt and coffee notes.

Good toast flavors to the malt, good hop presence, generally balanced. Everything is there, but as a whole it fails to achieve greatness, maybe even comes up a bit short.

Bottle. Pours dark black with a two finger creamy tan head. Flavors of coffee and chocolate. It is sweet on the palate. Very great beer

(Bottle). Aroma of malt and coffee. Black with tan head. Flavor bittersweet chocolate, malt, coffee. Not as flavorful as some other porters. Finish is a bit sour.