Anchor Porter

Anchor Porter, 5.60 % ABV, 12 oz

Color: This porter forms an ivory/coffee colored head, which is bubbly, delicate and creamy, with a good retention. Shade-wise it is one of the darkest porters I’ve seen: solid ebony that only shows a hint of brown when passed through strong light.

Tasting Notes: The nose however, is its greatest strength. One can immediately tell it apart from other porters/stouts by its incredibly bready and yeasty aroma, coupled with hints of integrated coffee and chocolate. A delicious start. On the palette the Anchor shows assertiveness, as gargantuan waves of chocolate and coffee crash in, it is underpinned by solid roasted malt/bread flavors. Although hop bitterness can be detected, citrus/fruit hop notes are nonexistent, differing greatly from Cooperstown’s Benchwarmer porter. The body is highly carbonated thus not particularly silky, but its smoothness and creaminess easily envelope the whole tongue, bearing similarity with the steam beer. The beer finishes crisply with a slight sweetness.

Comment: Let me be blunt: this is a HUGE porter. It tastes utterly unapologetic, direct and not really concerned with subtlety (of course it’s incredibly sublime compared to say, a Bud Lite). As much praise I would like to give the bottled version, it pales in comparison with its tap brethren. On President Obama’s inauguration day (most people who held Bush in low regard probably never addressed him as “president” in their daily conversation. See, I didn’t even call him EX-PRESIDENT!) I had the fortune of having a tap-poured pint of Anchor Porter to toast to a (hopefully) nation’s new beginning with Brendan and Theresa. The amount of bready/yeasty smells emanating from that pint must’ve been at least twice as strong then the bottled porter. For dark beer fans, this is a must try!

2/09/09