Thomas Hooker Imperial Porter

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

1L bottle, 2005 vintage, via ClarkVV. Pours a clear dark brown colored body with a little mahogany on the edges. Light brown creamy dense head one finger in height. Lots of clingy lacing. Aroma is chocolaty with lots of caramel, light coffee, roast, and some toffee. Flavor is quite a bit more roasty and burnt tasting than I expect from a Baltic. The caramel and toffee sweetness are there, but also a slight graininess. Lots of heavy coffee and a little drying astringency on the finish. Mouthfeel is full bodied and slightly thick and oily in texture. Pretty nice soft active carbonation that’s very fine. Overall, this was decent, but seemed to lack that certain something to make it really good, it didn’t seem to adhere to the classics as far as the style goes.

On tap at Drafting Room Exton. Pours a medium/thickdark grown color with a small beige head lace. The aroma was very roasty. Strong roasted malt flavor with som dark and milk chocolate flavors and a mellow oak and hoppy finish. A very satisfying porter.

#979, Bottle at the Champaign-Urbana private tasting held at Radio Maria. Hazy brown, thin with big bubbles white lace. Nose is very alcoholy big sweet malts. Taste kick with alcohol, hops and roasted malts. Wow wow wow, Just at the end there is that lager ness. Interesting.

Bottle sampled at the 1/1 tasting at Radio Maria, Champaign. Tasted after Stone 6th, and I found this slightly in wanting. I say its a bit thin on the palate, although Noah who is a better taster than I disagreed with me here. Regardless, solid notes of chocolate and cocoa nibs meets molasses and soy. Solid, not overwhelming.

Bottle. Black with tan head. Aroma was robust and roasted. The body was medium and the texture was alittle rocky. Coffee grind taste with burnt finish.

Bottle. Body-nearly opaque. Nose-grape, chocolate, cigarette smoke. Taste-medium bitter, cola, coffee, toffee, sweet cream, soil, ,mild bitterness, leaves, a lot of coffee notes, syrupy.

500mL bottle. Pours a dark black center; medium-tan head with excellent retention and lacing. Aroma shows bitter chocolate and cocoa. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: plenty of roasted malts, bitter chocolate, and citrus hops; shows a bit more alcohol than the average porter, but otherwise nothing else stands out. Well-balanced, chocolate and citrus finish.

From a 1 liter swing top bottle, bottled in 2005. Poured a black coffee brown with a rocky, fluffy tannish brown head, good retention, settled into a thin creamy lacing, minimal amount of laced sticking. Aromas of roasted coffee malts mingled with mocha, berry fruitiness, caramelized sugar and whiffs of sweet, rum-like alcohol. Good, steady, even carbonation and a malty crisp, slick, creamy smooth full bodied mouthfeel. Delicious tasting, burnt grain and roasted coffee and chocolate malts, a subtle salty nuttiness, a soft purple grape fruitiness, caramelized sugary, a mellow herbal touch, towards the end, flashes of medicinal alcohol flavor, warming in the back of the throat, and a dryish roasted caramel and coffee malty finish. Just a great porter, I need more of this, wonderful on a cold, windy midwestern night, easy, smooth sipping drinkability, another near perfect brew from Thomas Hooker.