Beer Recap

I've been really bad about keeping up with this. Actually, I've been really bad about taking pictures of the beer.

Porter:





Appearance: Opaque, inky, black beer. Pours like highly carbonated motor oil, only darker. Due to overcarbonation, it pours quite the head, as seen in picture one. Picture two shows what a proper pour looks like. In subsequent batches, I used less priming sugar (used to generate carbonation) to prevent this hyper-head from forming.

Smell: The aroma is very rich with nutty, toasty, and... dark notes.

Taste: The first time I tried this beer, I really didn't like it. It was too sweet and had a difficult-to-describe unpleasant flavor to it. My friend Chip agrees. Over the course of several days and weeks, the flavor greatly improved. At first it tasted too molassesey too, but that declined over time. The flavor mirrors the aroma. Anyone who's had Arcadia London Porter would understand the general style of this beer, though theirs is much cleaner and more refined. My dad says it's probably the best Porter he's ever had, but I don't think he's an unbiased taster. I feel like this beer would make a great Vanilla Porter. Maybe one day this winter...

Mouthfeel: It's definitely thick. Like the other beers, the champagney bubbles are most pleasant.

Drinkability: This is not the smoothest beer, but it's definitely good to drink. I wouldn't drink more than a 12 oz bottle of it. At over 6% alcohol, I think I'll pace myself.



ESB:



Appearance: Amber with a slight reddish tinge. First pour has about six inches of head. After the pressure reduces and the beer calms down, the head gets more manageable. Notice the extreme amount of sediment in this bottle. I'm trying to get better about reducing the amount of junk that gets into the bottles. The other bottles in this batch were much clearer.

Smell: The beer really isn't all that aromatic. It has a slight toffee and grainy smell

Taste: It's been interesting watching this beer's flavor develop over time. The first bottle seemed a bit sweet. It was quite delicious, but didn't have the drinkability I like. The next bottle, several days later, had too strong an alcohol taste. Since then, it's been wonderfully balanced. There's definitely a good caramel flavor from the caramel and chocolate malts. The hop bitterness is subtle. I was hoping for a bit more going on there. Oh well.

Mouthfeel: There's something creamy about this beer. I swear I didn't add any lactose. The fine champagne-like bubbles remind me of a nice cask ale.

Drinkability: This beer could be dangerous if I didn't have self-control. If there was a keg of this at a party, though, I would definitely be in trouble. It goes down so smoothly now that I can't taste high 6.7% alcohol content.

This post deserves a grand Prost!