Tommyknocker Cocoa Porter Winter Warmer

Brewed by Tommyknocker Brewery
Style: Porter
Idaho Springs, Colorado USA

12 oz. single for $2.00 from Buehler’s in Delaware, OH. Pours thin, dark, and brown with virtually no head; the tiniest visible ring of "foam" remains on the surface; I ended up with a huge clump of yeast in my glass because--silly me--I expected that they would actually filter the beer, and since I was pouring "aggressively" to try to bring out some head, I was unable to back off the pour before the huge yeast bomb flowed out. Aroma does indeed show a lot of cocoa; it’s like sniffing Hershey powder with a touch of roast; but that’s it (...!?). Flavor has just a brief glimmer of "portner-ness," still with lots of cocoa and a hint of roast, but again not much else. Thin but silky; not at all sticky. Gah... "Winter warmer"? Yeah, right.

Bottle. A dark brown color with a laced tan head. A very uninviting vegetable and stale chocolate aroma. A tangy, painful light sweet chocolate flavor.

Draft. Aroma: Cocoa powder just dominates the aroma. Behind that, very light maltiness, some sugary sweetness, and not much else. Appearance: Dark brown in color. Medium khaki head was small and foamy with decent retention. No lacing. Flavor: Again, cocoa powder is the dominant flavor. Not even good cocoa powder. Standard Hershey’s that you would buy at any Grocery Store. Very light roasted malt behind that. Very one dimensional, and not a good dimension. Palate: Medium-light bodied and watery. Medium carbonation. Overall: Just bad. Too much cocoa and not enough everything else. Poor.

Quite a delicious brew! Deep brownish-black color with a tight head, giving way to slight effervescence. Rich hot-cocoa-like aromas coupled with a touch of honey creates a nicely balanced flavor. Very low hop presence, but good for this style. Slight alcohol flavor tames the sweetness nicely and essentially makes this brew quite quaffable! Would be an axcellent pairing to rich desserts, or possibly hearty meats in main courses, such as certain types of game. Other reviewers must have gotten infected bottles, because this tasted like liquid gold to me!!

Bottle from Jungle Jim’s. Poured a black color with a small rocky off-white head that was mostly diminishing with minimal lacing. Light sweet aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture. Medium bittersweet flavor with medium sweet finish of short duration.

12oz bottle. Bottle labeled best enjoyed 4 months of date notched - notched N ’06. Poured a dark brown with red edges and a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of mainly cocoa with some honey. Tastes of mainly cocoa, with again some honey and very light roast. This one was all about the Cocoa powder and deserves its name. I could probably mix this with milk and give it to my kids in place of their chocolate milk. I didn’t fnid it as overly offense as the majority of people did.

Pours very dark brown with cloudy orange highlights. Thin fizzy head quickly fades. A bunch of sediment (cocoa powder?) pours in the end. Sweet earthy aroma and definite cocoa. Tangy and sour flavors, very thin. Barely any malt flavor, slight cocoa in the finish, but leaves a very sour flavor as well. Was this an infected bottle?

Deep Dark brown pour, with a small light brown bubbly head. The aroma is all cocoa, no malt, not anything but cocoa. This a lighter bodied porter with flavor tending to be very true to the aroma, very cocoa. This was suprisingly sweet too. Not malty enough.