Woolshed Brewery Scorched Almond Porter

Rating:

“Woolshed Brewery and Almondco are celebrating Almondco’s 75th year, with this one off specialty brew just for thr occasion. Almondco roast crushed almonds, brewed with organic cacao nibs, chocolate malt and lactose, for a creamy, roast choc nut beer experience!”

Glassware: English Pint.

Appearance: Kind of a deep garnet with light mahogany hues…not dark enough for a Porter. A finger of lightly tanned foam falls away and forms a halo. Nice wavy lace as it ebbs.

Aroma: Beautiful fusion of toasted almonds flowing through the somewhat lighter than expected Porter characteristics. We’re detecting a gentle roast, milky coffee and chocolate, caramel, mixed nuts and honey/maple. Slightly underwhelming.. it could actually pass as an Amber Ale.

Flavour: A bit of a watered down mess. The front palate hardly offers anything of note until it hits the nutty and sweet caramels early in the mid. Only then does it open up, albeit, conservatively. Dry nutty roast, milk chocolate, earthy hops and cocoa does linger nicely on the back palate.

Mouthfeel: Too thin and slippery for the style. We’d be happy to overlook but it’s hard to ignore here. Low-ish Co2. 5% ABV is too tame.

Overall: Very pedestrian stuff from a highly regarded brewery in our opinion. It’s just lacking everything you’d expect from an adjunct flavoured Porter. Yeah the nutty-ness is there but there’s no depth or structure behind it.