Sierra Nevada - Porter

Brewery: Sierra Nevada http://www.sierranevada.com/

Style: Porter

ABV: 5.6%

Container: .5 liters of Quality German Beerware

Location Bought: Crestview Florida Publix

Location/Situation Enjoyed Under: Saturday Night In a big empty house watching Super Troopers With a Steak and Corn on the Cob.

Appearance: Deep color with a light tan head that comes on heavy but quickly settles back into the beer.

First Reaction: God I miss the West Coast.

You taste that? Yeah that. You know what that is? That my friends is the wonderful, beautiful, like no other taste of: Willamette Hops. Now it is my duty to poke fun at California so I must say its surprising to find something good from that state. After all this is only the second good thing I know of to come from there. The other knows who she is.

This really is a great Porter its full and rich with just the right bitter touches. It doesn't have the deep swirling flavors you get with some other porters and I know exactly what you're going  to get when you crack open a bottle as I have found batch control to be right on the mark with every one of these I have drank, all for the sake of the readers of course. This has the tingle of coffee that I like in a porter but its hard to pick out from around the basic malted flavors. The use of Hops in this beer is what makes it worth drinking. The Willamette hops used in this Porter give it a nice crisp clean closing salvo of flavor that leaves you satisfied and feeling good about every drink you take from opening till the last tip of the bottle on the way to the fridge to get another.

Breweries'  Description:

"Sierra Nevada Porter is a completely natural beer, full of roasted malts, which give it a ritch, bittersweet and roasted toffee flavor. This medium bodied ale is perfectly balanced, with a smooth malty flavor and crisp American hops. "

Great Lakes Brewing Co. - Porter "Edmund Fitzgerald"

Brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Co. http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/

Style: Porter " Edmund Fitzgerald

ABV: 5.8%

Container: Straight From the Bottle

Location Bought: WPAFB Class Six, Ohio, August 2010

Location/Situation Enjoyed Under: In a cruddy hotel.

Appearance: Deep Brown Black with a frothy white head 

First Reaction: A nice bittersweet, almost like semi-sweet chocolate front. 
When I first tasted it I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I thought In had found yet another "Porter" that would leave me wishing for a swift return to the true hearty Porters of Stumptown. But it definitely grows upon you after the second sip. I really wish I could have enjoyed this beer from a frosty glass instead of the bottle. After a couple sips and letting the beer settle its flavors really opened up and you could appreciate more of the beers complexities. This is definitely an excellent regional beer and I encourage anyone who comes across it to enjoy a bottle, it really is a pleasure. This is on the bitter end for a porter, so If you tend to prefer Stouts over Porters I think you may find this to be just the thing to wet your palate with.

I wish I had more time here now simply to try the rest of this family of beers.

Brewery's Description:

Thanks to our craft brewing process, when you take a swig of our Edmund Fitzgerald, it will taste smoky, robust, dark, and bittersweet. Named after the ship that frequently docked in Cleveland and sunk in Lake Superior in 1975, our Porter combines a complex, roasty aroma with a bittersweet, chocolate-coffee taste.