Viking Brewing Whole Stein

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

Great black color, rich looking and thick with a thin cocoa brown head that fades to a leave a few spots of lace and upon drinking gets small patches and strings. Smell is solid coffee, somewhat espresso-like but closer to a dark coffee, has burnt cookies, dark chocolate and lovely notes of sweet oatmeal and molasses, reminds me of Milk Duds, Malted Milk Balls, a sweet chocolate chip cookie with a burnt bottom dipped in rich coffee. Ahhh....what a fabulous aroma! Guess what? It tastes like it smells! Starting with easy, sweet dark roasty malts, chocolate tangyness rendering more sweetness and the oatmeal really makes this wonderfully sweet throughout the taste and then finishes strong with a nice rich easy coffee flavor and drying. Again tasting like not-so-thick Milk Duds, Malted Milk Balls, a sweet chocolate chip cookie with a slightly burnt bottom dipped in rich coffee. This is not thick and rich like an Imperial Stout, this a milk version so its much lighter in that regards but just right for what this accomplishes. Feel is a nice and smooth milky medium body and great lingering of coffee dryness holding some in the finish in the back of the tongue. One hell of a nice "coffee oatmeal milk porter"! Viking has a acquired a new fan with this one.

Pours a dark opaque brown-black, folds into glass like a rich cream, topped by a huge light brown head that mostly lasts. Aroma is a bewitching combination of coffee, chocolate, toffee and malt. Very creamy on the palate. Chocolate, toffee, coffee and molasses bombard the taste buds. Nicely balanced finish. Great beer! Pairs well with any red meat, especially off the grill.

12 oz bottle courtesy of The_Enemy. This beer pours to a deep brown to black color with a slight tan head that fades, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic with aromas of bitter sweet chocolate, coffee, and mild roast. The palate is soft with lots of good flavors of dark chocolate, sweet malt, coffee, and mild roast. Palate is lean, but smooth and creamy, making it so drinkable. This beer finishes with more really great chocolate and sweet malt flavors up front, then ends with some flavors of coffee, and more dark chocolate flavor. This beer was so delicious and drinkable. The chocolate aromas and flavors of these beer are really impressive, and makes Whole Stein a great beer to match with deserts, or the perfect beer to have after a meal. They suggest breakfast beer, and I think this beer would be a great beer to match with some donuts. I would love to drink this beer any time of the day.

12oz bottle brought back from Wisconsin. I had assumed this was going to be a "big" beer, but at 4.5% a pleasant surprise it is. Big and bold in flavor, with a mild smooth finish. Sweet cocoa aroma. Opaque black-brown color with a rusty orange quickly diminished head. Wow. The chocolate and roasted malts come through so perfectly. This is one of the best Porters I’ve had, a style I am quite fond of.

Pours out black with a tan head that stays pretty well and leaves nice lacing throughout the glass. Smell is a bit chocolatey and roasty, but it has a very light smell to it. Taste starts out light, but quickly hits you with a light chocolate and coffee-like flavors. Mouthfeel is just so smooth and rich with a heavier than medium body and real light carbonation on the tongue. Another excellent beer from the folks at Viking; you’ve found yourselves a new customer!

Main beer man, Phil, provided this. Almost opaque black body under a mocha frothy head that left a trail of lacing along the thistle glass. Aroma of chocolate malt and coffee, sweet and enticing. Smooth and creamy mouthfeel, if a but thin. The flavor was milky, chocolatey, coffee malt. Very tastey and appealing. Want more of this.

Thoroughly black in color, with a finely roasted head of tannish foam that sits and stays in the glass. Deep, dark, arcane aroma, rich as it gets, full as can be, the nose flooded with associations of plums, dates, raisins, coffee, chocolate, molasses, and maybe more. Thick texture, lush taste, flavor engorges the senses, rich and roasty, but creamy, as well. A "coffee/milk/oatmeal porter", is it? A tall bill to fill, and somehow they carry it off; it should be a mess, but it’s wonderful stuff, an amalgam of the best of many styles of stout/porter, some of which are awfully hard to find good examles of on their lonesomes. body is about medium, finish is, too, and the flavor remains sweet and creamy, ever so easy to toss back. Top of the heap of sweet stouts, er, I mean, "milk/coffee/oatmeal porters."

The pour is an inky black, the head modest in size, the texture frothy and the color a winsome light chocolate, as it evolves the lace forms a fine sealing sheet upon the glass. The sweet malt seems to dominate, chased by the toasted grains and a hint of fresh brewed coffee also noticed, fresh, crisp, and clean with the start thickly malt and sweet, the top is moderate in its feel to the palate. Finish has a pesky acidity, the hops pertinent in their spiciness, drought and bittersweet aftertaste lingers on the palate. At 3.5% ABV, this is a Porter that would have me drinking it all night long, never thought of a Porter as a “session beer”, but I do now, thanks to “tavernjef” for this bottle, and my thanks and gratitude to the fine “Crafts People” at Viking Brewery for such a fine beer.