“Gone Porto is a brand new slow-cooked Imperial Stout from Amager Brewery, which we have stored for an immensely long time in large Niepoort port wine casks. The result is a nicely juicy case out. Gone Porto is a lovely visit and ideal for the quiet, contemplative hours. Alternatively it can be used as a standard beer for the family reunion in. Case out!”
Served in a stemmed tulip. Displaying a black body that sports a healthy two finger crown. Head retention is excellent, depositing a thick sticky lace down the walls of the glass.
The nose comes through with some vigour! It is super rich, intense and absolutely luscious. She opens up with bitter dark chocolate, cocoa, molasses, raw coffee bean and licorice. After she gets comfortable in the glass those gorgeous port aromas begin to surface with prunes, dates and spice tantalizing the olfactory’s. (Apologies, we may have got a bit carried away with the whole first date with a lady thing here.)
This beauty is offering some rich and intense roasted notes upfront leading to a dank middle that displays oak, cellar room, molasses and hints of ash. Just a slight uncovering of the 10% ABV before the rich, roasty and syrupy molasses notes deliver the long drawn out finish. Finally we taste a bit of our beloved tawny port in the tail.
Big, full bodied and intense in the mouth, coating the whole palate as it washes over. A firm warmth from the 10% ABV but that is to be expected.
We admit that we can’t be too critical because it is only a barrel project but damn! We want more port flavour! On its own it’s a brilliant stout…but add in those subtle port flavours and it becomes exceptional. But add MORE port flavour and we’d be handing this a certain 10/10. This top shelf stout only just fell short. Too bad.