Sam Adams Holiday Porter

      Another of Sam's regular Holiday offerings.  Holiday Porter pours out a very dark brown and has a sweet mocha and caramel nose.  HP contains the usual mocha and coffee flavors with a bit of herb.  The herb blends poorly with other flavors which creates an off flavor I don't like.  This is so far below the other porters it's sad.  Still it's not terrible, so it goes reluctantly on the nice list.  Don't buy it though.

Old Dominion Baltic Porter

      Old Dominion was the closest brewery to my house before they were stolen from me. The day of retribution will come Delaware.  Baltic pours out black as pitch with a mocha caramel nose.  This creamy concoction has nice caramels and a strong vanilla flavor.  Much better than the fake taste of Remarkable Vanilla Porter.  This tastes good, but the body is surprisingly week. It could be better,but it's still a strong Winter Beer.  The last sip is delicious, a strong entry.  Yum.

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

This is the last of the three porters we're exploring. This imperial, usually meaning higher alcohol, porter is from local brewery, Flying Dog. This sure sounds like a winner, porter with more delicious alcohol. But I've been let down before. Gonzo pours out black as pitch, and has sweet caramel, mocha, yeast and a background hop bitter. The flavor is mocha and coffee with lots of hop bitterness up front and on the finish. This is strong stuff. The flavors are a bit too strong, especially the hops which tend to drown the other flavors. The finish is all bitter, leaving that lingering bitter aftertaste. I'm really not feeling this stuff. It's a chore to drink. It's heavy has a lousy aftertaste and it's expensive. I'm really disappointed, and I can't see ever buying this again. I 'm not even going to bother finishing it, a first. Well that's three porters and I have clear favorites. The Kona is easily the best, with the vanilla porter second and the Gonzo terrible. Next I'm gonna try a few randos.

Breckenridge Remarkable Vanilla Porter

The next of our trio of porters is Breckenridge Remarkable Vanilla Porter. This porter pours out a medium brown and unsurprisingly has a strong vanilla and sugar nose. Wowza, there be vanilla here in spades.It has a cream soda flavor and a little hop bitter which fades in and out. The finish is vanilla extract in a big way. Now I love vanilla. To me it's superior to chocolate, but this is just too medicinal tasting. This is not your easy drinking party beer, this is a sipper. Now, I still kind of like this stuff, but it is dependent on your vanilla extract tolerance. I'll go get another one of these someday. Still, i liked the Kona Porter quite a bit more. On to the next porter from Flying Dog.

Kona Pipeline Porter

This is the first of three porters we will be exploring, because I love porters, and drinking. Kona Brewing is of course, a Hawaiian brewery. Pipeline Porter pours out a nice dark brown. The nose has crisp mocha scents, a bit more chocolate than coffee. The flavor is a nice mocha with a lingering black coffee finish. There's enough hop here to give that crispness, but otherwise it disappears. This is a really nice beer if you like your coffee black, like your men. Pipeline would also be a great dessert beer with sweet stuff. It could use some more alcohol, but what couldn't. It might be good with chocolate, don't mind if I do. Yes it is. A good start to a trio of porters.

Duck Rabbit Porter

This porter is made by the Duck Rabbit brewery of Farmville, North Carolina. They claim to be a dark beer specialist, we shall see. This beer pours out a real dark brown. It has delightful mocha and caramel on the nose with a hint of crisp hop bitters. One taste and it's all about the delicious malts. Deep mocha flavors with a smoky background, and nice caramel sweetness. There's also a light hop bitterness that, cradles the beer in it's loving embrace. The malts caress my tongue, lavishing it with attention. Needless to say this is a first rate porter. I can highly recommend it. I will now celebrate this beer with a haiku.

Dark malts sweet embrace
Cascading into my throat
Duck Rabbit be mine.

Duck Rabbit

Highland Oatmeal Porter

Next up, another North Carolina beer, this one from the Highland Brewing Company in Asheville. Highland Oatmeal Porter pours out a light to medium brown. This beer has a really malty nose with a smoky mocha note and hop tones permeating the background. Now for the important part, the drinking. Shockingly heavy hop bitterness throughout, becoming even stronger on the finish. I'm straining to search out other flavors here. Yeah there's some mocha and caramel, but they are swallowed by hops. Usually this is the type of beer that would have a rich creamy fullness, I don't get that. It Seems weak on the body. Maybe I'm going through the change and my taste is off, but I find this wildly unbalanced. All the yummy goodness that is here is locked away in a prison of hops. And this is a style where it's supposed to be all about the malts. Have these people gone mad? Why yes they have. Note: I don't read labels till after I do tasting notes. Here is the whole text from the label. This is the most infamous pack of lies ever conceived by man. " A unique Highland creation, this robust( is not) beer is black in color,( medium brown, you can see right through it, the picture above isn't a good judge) very malty ( I can barely tell malt was used) with hints of chocolate-roasted flavor ( o.k. there are hints) and a well balanced hop character. This last phrase is the most stunning lie of all, there is zero balance. I really wanted to like this beer, porters are one of my favorite styles, but they got this one wrong. I hope Highland has better, we'll see as I have several of their other beers in the fridge.
P.S. I tried it with some glazed ham and it was not as bad.

http://highlandbrewing.com/