Sunday River Black Bear Porter

Brewed by Sunday River Brewpub and Restaurant
Style: Porter
Bethel, Maine USA

(12oz bottle) Small beige head atop clear, dark brown body. Aroma is medium sweet, grapefruit, some caramel. Taste is medium sweet, grapefruit, some caramel, roast, chocolate. Light-medium body, some resin, light acidity. The appearance is the only characteristic that fits a porter profile -- this beer is much too hoppy, with not enough maltiness (though it does intensify slightly as it warms). Not that this is a bad thing as far as my appreciation, just pointing out that my expectations did not equal results.

(Bottle) Pours a brown body with a small tan head. Aroma of chocolate, lactose, and caramel. Flavor of roasted malt, chocolate, and mild hops.

12oz bottle. Poured a medium to deeper brown color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of cocoa, roast, chocolate, and burnt caramel. Tastes of chocolate, roast, and caramel.

Pours a barely transparent dark mahogany with ruby hues and a pillowy wispy-lacing tan head. Lightly sweet roasty malty aroma has some light fruity tartness and a touch of dark chocolate. Body starts with a fizzy mild caramel malty sweetness turning more citric and sour toward a drier earthy finish with lingering dark chocolate. This is most likely in the midst of infection, which is unfortunate, because it would probably be a good beer otherwise.

Any first impressions?
-A veil of foam floats atop a murky dark brown.
-Earthy, citrusy hops and muddy roastiness intrigue the nostrils.
-Wooden hops take quite a bit of space in the flavor spectrum, as roastiness has to set back in the second violin position.
-The comfy carbonation fits the light and quenching mouthfeel.

What if you dig deeper?
-Some burnt fruitiness is found hugging the malts.
-This lacks the maltiness of the best porters, and thus feels more like a brown IPA, but it’s good, so who cares?
-I don’t think the flavors coalesce completely, but this still remains a flavorful pint.
-A more recent pint offered lots of roastiness and caramel in a very slim mouthfeel, ending in roasted and wooden hop bitterness. From 3.4 to 3.0.

On tap at the brewpub on two separate occasions.

Pours dark brown with a thin tan head. Smells of sweet malt and mildly roasty. Tastes of roasted malt and chocolatey, but a bit thin on the mouthfeel.

12 ounce bottle from Beers of the World in Rochester, NY (June 2007), served from a Unibroue glass at cellar temperature. Beautiful snowflake lacing results as the thick, medium-bubbled dark tan head slowly recedes atop the dark translucent purple-black liquid….terrific caramel-overlaying milk and dark chocolates and light roasty espresso, just dynamite if you like a sweet porter in the aroma….pretty wonderful on the tongue as well, the roasty-bitter characteristics are quite muted at first in favor of thick milky vanilla-chocolate, but they come to the fore midpalate along with a surprisingly bitter, oily hop texture for a very dry, almost mouthpuckering, burnt and potent finish….carbonation is low and natural, and there’s a faint hint of grit in the mouthfeel….a hint of grape and blackberry comes in with half the glass done….this is terrific stuff, bravo.

Bottle from porterhouse and served in a pils glass: pous a deep brown with a lasting frothy tan head and good lace. The aroma has notes of walnut, roasted and burnt malt, coffee, some chocolate, grassy hops, and a note of lactic pungent ester. The taste is a mild combination of hop bitterness and roasty malt background. Additionally some of a coffee and cream (i.e. lactic sourness) character finished by a nutty and dry quality. The feel is standard fare for the style, watery and fizzy. An okay brew and worth trying once. Too hoppy with not enough malt backbone for my liking.