Stone Chipotle Smoked Porter

Name: Smoked Porter, Chipotle
Date: May 13, 2009
Mode: Firkin
Source: Taco Mac, Duluth
Appearance: black, frothy tan head, lots of lace
Aroma: smokey aroma with a touch of hot pepper, hint of dark chocolate
Flavor: hot pepper flavor is up front and builds with each quaf, light smoke grows and melds well with the pepper, dark chocolate base is way in the background but provides the needed balance, pepper heat lasts in a forever finish as a good pepper should
Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **+/4

(Draught) Pours a dark brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of sourness, light smoke, roasted malt and mild pepper. Flavor of roasted malt, subtle chipotle pepper, light smoke, and cocoa.

1 Liter growler via Wetherel, thanks. Pours pretty still with just a small amount of head and hardly any retention. Aroma is somky without much chipotle. Taste isn’t hardly chipotle enough but the mellow smokiness is tasty enough to compensate.Flavor is peppery with some mellow cocoa and vanilla. Needs more chipotle.

On draft at Stone World Bistro. Pous black with a thin white head. The aroma is only slightly peppery, and smokey. The taste is robust and dry with a little bit of pepper coming through, I’ve had spicy beer before and this is not spicy what so ever. Well made brew a little thin on the palate but good.

Cask at Stone. Hazy brown body tan head. Coffe chocolate and roast on the aroma. Also vanilla and pepper. Chocloaye light heat wood. Light bubbles.

Sampled from a 1 L growler 24 hours after being filled, May 2007
Still very well carbonated, it pours with an almost three-finger thick, frothy, pale brown colored head that sits atop a brilliantly clear, very dark brownish amber colored brew that you can just see through if you hold it up to a bright light. Quite malty smelling with notes of toasted malt, chocolate, browned biscuits, crusty-browned French bread and blackened raisins. I don’t really notice the chipotlé peppers in the nose at all.

There is a medium full thickness to this brew. Lightly phenolic with notes of woody smoke and perhaps a wisp of burnt plastic. I don’t really get the chipotle aspect; there is something that is almost plastic-like, perhaps leaning towards hot, but I am not sure this is very spicy at all. On the other hand I know that this was subtle, I am a chilé head and I know that chilé beers that are noticeable to others have only been subtle to my taste buds. I like the mix of burnt flavors, smoke and dark fruit notes here. Flavors of toasted malt, burnt grain, roasted coffee beans, dark chocolate.

Ok, there is something here in the finish which I would attribute to the chipotle chilés, but without knowing about it a priori, I would never have guessed there was something different about this beer.

Stone, the next time you make this you need to put in a lot more chipotlé peppers, this could work really well if properly spiced. I have added ½ a dried chipotlé at bottling time to each 22oz bottle of smoked porter and that is definitely way too much, but something like a ratio of 1/16th to 1/8th of a chipotle per 22oz bottle would probably be nicely spicy. In the end, I did notice, if you drink a lot more other beers, you can finally taste the chipotle flavors and not unconsciously think that you got ripped off by the Stone guys ;-)

I had this at Stone Brewing in the sample room. This is a must try. Smoked Porter is already a great beer. To have the slight burn in the back of your throat to go with the smoked aroma is a plus!

ON tap at Stone. Smokey and peppery aroma. Smooth smokey porter taste with a dry and peppery finish.