“A deliciously sweet Baltic style Porter fermented with Belgian Candi syrup to lighten the body & then infused with selected coffee beans & the finest chocolate. The beer is then aged for 11 months in freshly drained rum barrels before bottling. Think Tia Maria Beer.”
Served in a beer tulip. She pours a heavy, dark brown with soft edges of mahogany. A short tan head is constructed but it recedes quite quickly as it settles to a ring with scarce lace being left in its wake. The aroma is super complex and layered. Jumping out is this red wine-like tannin that offers slightly tart notes of berries. Hints of oak, black currants, subtle vinegar and an almost medicinal character has us baffled though. As it comes up to room temperature the candy sugars, dark fruits and raw coffee does pull the tartness back a bit but it’s all a little too sharp and sour for our liking. The weight of the beer is quite good considering the vinegary characters on the nose. The body is on the fuller side of medium with low Co2 and a kind of spiky, mineraly texture going on in the mouth. The 8.2% ABV is pretty nicely buried. She actually drinks quite well. Some of the more quintessential porter qualities front up in flavour. Underneath the vinegar and tartness are hints of chocolate, coffee and earthy malts that eventually get gobbled up by this persistent, lactic, sour cherry flavour that carries in to the finish and provides this dry, fruity wine tannin on the back end. We’ll admit, we really didn’t like this much. It’s too sour and vinegary and not enough malt, chocolate and coffee to balance it out. Kind of reminds us of Brew Cults Acid Freak Porter…and that isn’t good.