Beer of the Day Podcast - The Greatest Porter in the World - February 2nd, 2017

This is the Beer of the Day Podcast. From Beer of the Day World Headquarters in Elk Grove California, this is the Beer of the Day Podcast. Tonight our mission is to determine the greatest border in the world nine different parties to try from throughout the country. And joining me here in studio Jeff Miller, Britton Minor and Joel Minor. Hi guys. Hello everyone. This is a long awaited Porter show. I mean we have been collecting porters and they have been piling up there in the vault for quite a while and I'm really looking forward to try and some of these this is my jam I'm excited for this and one of these is a winter seasonal Puerto so good time of year to be doing. It's good to see a person. Jeff thank you. It's nice to be here. Usually we see you on a computer screen. Yeah I like these in person podcast. It just seems to flow very well and I like that. You sound better to think that's going to the first beer of the night we have and we're going to order from low A.B.V. to high A.B.V. on the show the first beer is from mammoth Brewing Company in Mammoth Lakes California. This is the double nut brown five and a half percent. So I'm looking at Dallas is poor and it looks fairly clear. It's got a little bit of a mob any flavor to it. I mean I'm sorry. Larry clear firm larger it. Yeah it is quite clear. You can see through it a little bit. I mean normally things porters are quite dark but this is a Coca-Cola colored maybe even a little lighter than Coca-Cola and it has a thin white head maybe just off white light tan head bent Hassidic it's also been ideally a brown ale and a little nutty it does so I think that might be a thing here where in the lighter porters to begin with might be kind of bordering on brown ales and then as we get farther into the show or to get into the true porters I do get some brown sugar on the aroma a little cinnamon maybe. Now this is a beer that actually picked up at the brewery a couple weeks ago Mammoth Lakes is a ski resort and it's also like a summer destination in the eastern Sierras just a little bit south of Lake Tahoe and I was up there skiing for a weekend went to the brewery and brought this back. They make a lot of great beers and this is one that they're well known for I think it maybe want to. Some GA P.F. metal. In the past. So what surprises me is that it feels like a little bit thin. It's got like a little bit of a thin metal feel but it packs in a ton of flavor for what's there and I really like that. Yeah I get the brown ale taste. It's kind of a traditional Brown Ale taste but then there's a smokiness in the after taste and like a little bit of that campfire stout type of taste words sweet and maybe a little marshmallow or something

going on a little bit of that smokiness from a can for. Fire. That's really interesting beer. So it has something that I don't like it to me it tastes like the glue they use in your braces at the dentist office it's got some sort of weird enamel burning like taste to it. I do not like the bomb or I don't know about that. I don't either. What I get is definitely some like burnt. Caramel malt flavors but what I find interesting is some porters when is when you have that sort of burnt. Coffee the rich flavors but also hops tend to be like a citrusy taste and not super citrusy like a lot of I P A's. But when you find a porter like this obviously it has hops in it but when you find like the hops sort of contrasts a little bit with the Malton I get a little bit of this in the spear I can see how you're getting hops and why has it earlier. I just think it's packed full flavor. It's I feel it's really enjoyable good want to get it started off with all right well before we get to the next beer

anyone have any interesting beers this week they wanted to mention. Yeah I had one that I wanted to mention I had it on my own earlier this week and we all tried it as a group just a little bit ago. It was a beer that Hugo actually picked up from a friend via beer trade from the East Coast. It's a pineapple milkshake I.P.A. from tired hands in Pennsylvania. And we really enjoyed it. It was. You know had some pineapple flavor but also some peach and Main go as one of these juicy hazy I.P.A. today we did a hazy. I.P.A. a beer podcast a few you know last month and we like those but this was one of the better ones for sure and it. It had some lactose in it which really. I think contributed to the creamy mouth feel of the beer and it was not at all bitter So if you are looking for a non bitter I.P.A. I really enjoyed it and tired hands makes a lot of great beer so this was an excellent one. The pineapple milkshake I.P.A.. Yeah if you're going to call an I.P.A. a milkshake there better be some type of lactose in there. I had one yesterday I went to the art of beer. It's like a kind of a beer festival in Sacramento and they have it every year the last three or four years and they have beer all the Sacramento breweries in Syria that Firestone and some other bigger ones are there and they had food vendors and it's all included in the one price and they had some beer related art. As a pretty neat event this year was more packed than usual so it was a little bit longer lines. I think maybe they need to either get a bigger room or or limit the number of tickets because it was a little bit crazy this year but the best theory had out of all the ones I tried was from Moonraker which is a brewery in Auburn that's been open about a year now and they had their dojo double I.P.A. which is like a stronger variant of their you know Joe which is one of their their big beers and that's another juicy New England style I.P.A. but they packed such a lot of hop flavor in it that it wasn't you know some of those juicy ne I.P.A. has become to juice like and not like a beer and this really had a pretty strong hop flavor also so maybe a little bit of the mildew between West and East Coast and. Just a solid beer so if you're going to chance to

try Moonraker. Definitely an up and coming brewery in the Sacramento area. I've been hearing good things about them and I live in Southern California. So I would I would echo what Alice said. OK let's get into the next beer. We have from to yoga Sequoia Brewing Company in Fresno. This is the sugar pine cocoa vanilla Porter and this is one we've been hanging onto for a while. I think Jeff went to this brewery or was driving through Fresno and bought several of these beers and we've had it in the in the vault for maybe a year now. So I'm glad we finally get to try this one. You know I really only seen these in the Central Valley like Bakersfield Fresno that area so. Maybe in the future the have more distribution but we've enjoyed the beers we've had in the past from them. So this one is much darker than the last one through early. There's like a amber jewel at the bottom of the glass and I'm noticing that the head is a lot more and. Yeah this is definitely more your traditional Porter color and smell too I think you know this one I have that's really reserved on the aroma but I do get a little molasses on the aroma. But once you take a separates vanilla. I mean it's in the name and that really comes through right off the bat. I think it's pretty aptly named actually isn't vanilla coke of N L A. Yeah the exactly what it is like I'm shocked that it's only five point five percent and not because you get a lot of alcohol flavor just because of how thick the beer is obviously you get a real thick beard and people cram you know a lot of sugar in there bring up the A.B.V. it doesn't have a lot of you know at five point five percent doesn't have a lot of the outcall hit to it which is actually really enjoyable. Yeah a lot of times you get beer with the full mouth. We turn it around. If you have a beer that has low A.B.V. So when you get a lighter mouth like that first beer we had this one maintains a pretty thick heavy mouth feel even though it's low A.B.V. and I like that because sometimes they just try to pump up the A.B.V. so much. And this one is it's kinds own characteristic because it's it's really heavy mouthfeel but it has a good amount of flavor but it doesn't have a high level of A.B.V.. High alcohol content. Well I like that because as a person who really loves Porter and stout and wants to drink them all year round like having one that has a little bit of a like thick mouth feel but still has a really good flavor and is a very drink a bowl where it's like. Sometimes I feel like some porters and stouts sounds like you're chewing and that's OK in the winter time but in the summertime you want something a little bit more drinkable I kid I could drink this one in the summertime. I drink in the morning. Morning Coffee first wake up morning here. Yeah that's interesting because it does have some of the characteristics of like ice coffee. But definitely some some chocolate. I enjoy the spear I I think it's. Porters in general to me have a lighter

body and you know everything you guys just said is completely spot on. But I like the drink ability of a porter. Any time of the year and this is one that in a time of the day you could drink. Yeah absolutely. That's very good in cocoa and Bonilla that's what I'm getting it's great you know the cocoa hits you right up front to me and then the vanilla is kind of in comes through in the effort and it's really like no bitterness with with this beer. You know probably most of these beers it's like a multi finish. And you know some people don't like a bitter beer and these are ones that are I think easy to drink. If you like the roasted malt the coffee the the chocolate type of flavors. And this definitely has all of those in it. One thing that I would say is I wouldn't necessarily describe this beer is sweet but it does seem to finish. So as you're drinking it like it. It's not like it's more like the cocoa and then as you're finishing with the vanilla it gets leader. Yeah the thing about it is cocoa can sometimes be bitter and dark malts can sometimes have kind of Iraq. I bite to it that is a little bit more abrasive not super easy to drink. This doesn't have that the cocoa is not like bitter sweet cocoa it's kind of sweet and then the. Vanilla kind of comes in and kind of makes it as more sweetness and makes it more drink a bowl. It's a little decadent like I mean it could be it's not sweet but it's it could be a dessert beer. Yeah. This would be great with after a meal with a piece of pie something like that totally definitely or in the morning a smoke male. Yeah. Certainly it's big. You know oatmeal. Let's get into next beer. We have an oatmeal Porter. This is from Highland Brewing Company in Asheville North Carolina moving up to five point nine percent. How do you place a choir this beer. This is one we got from tour to or is a service we met we went through on the last podcast but it's a service that's an app on your phone and they feature several different beers a day and if you want the beer. You just say buy it and they added to your box and they ship it to you once a month. So we haven't really talked about this too much because we want to make sure it was good but they beers they tend to put out our high quality and you get to try beers from all around the country. And it's not super expensive. It's just maybe a dollar or two more than you would pay in the store for the same beer. So it's a pretty good deal. And if you go to to your T.V. Oh you are Dot beer the day dot com or to make it simple go to tab. T. A.V. dot beer the day dot com It will take you two to four you sign up and then we'll get ten dollars credit and then we'll be able to use that purchased more beer for this podcast. Good thing about it is a lot of people write in and ask how do you get the beers. That we have on the show and some of the beers. You'll be able to get through to are so that's one way that you can get beers like being in California we have listeners in

Cincinnati or wherever and they can't get a lot of the same beers that we have so this is one way that beer drinkers all around the country can get similar beers and really good quality they don't put out crappy beers. It's quite good and this one's from

Asheville North Carolina which we've talked many times about going there. It's definitely a future beer cation destination and has to be there is one hundred twenty breweries in one hundred mile radius. Yeah so every beer we get to try from Ashville I

enjoy because it's just preparation for a future trip as far as I see it. So this one pours it's a little bit clearer than the last one but not as clear as the first one. It's a little bit lighter but what is really peaking my interest is the aroma. It really smells like a barrel leads to out or something like It's got like that soya sauce. Type thing going on. That is interesting to me in a porter it does and very sweet in the aroma. Yeah you can it just gives off sugar in the in the aroma. You know and I wouldn't think that's the meal given off that aroma but maybe it is I mean it's it's unique. For a porter. There's plenty of oatmeal porters out there but that aroma. I think is unique for a porter and so you little brown sugar and when I really get my nose in the glass and really take it in it or I do smell the oatmeal like the actual of it. I'm doing some sort of like wood maybe it's like oak or something but just I didn't do it. Yeah but in any day and I just took a sip of it. I don't taste any oak but it is you know it smells really good woodsy it has like a woodsy taste. Yet like a dry wood not like a wet wood. I think. A little bit of an Illinois also. I like this it's got it's got a very creamy mouth feel. And I like how

smooth it's like a silky like a velvety mouth feel it's lower carbonation which I think leads to that. Yeah I get a lot of the caramel type of taste on the my tongue and for some reason the creaminess in the lower carbonation really allows you to fully taste the beer. I enjoy this. It's like silky smooth easy to drink. I mean it's only five point nine percent. It's not a not a heavy. Like high alcohol beer it's lighter body but super flavorful Yes there's something tripping me up here and it is that I am getting something slightly to moderately floral and I've never tasted that Porter before. Yeah I'm not getting them getting more of like a a butter and oak flavor and a caramel flavor that I just really enjoyable is a great beer. I'm going to some earthy hops maybe that's the floral or thinness of it. You know it's not citrusy it's not Piney but I get some hops on the finish and maybe that's where you get in. Oh it's like Jasmine like you'll not theaters like Dallas. What do you think I like it a lot. I don't get the floral I just get all the dark malts but reserved I get a lot of that smooth caramel you know on the aroma. I get more of oats than I do on the taste. It's like it's the taste is just it's like dessert to me it's really sweet really well balanced and just so smooth. I don't think it's that sweet to me it's a very balanced beer it's got some hops and in them also there. I just think it's a very well rounded beer. Yeah it's like bread. And butter but like that soft nice dark bread that you are longing for some bread you haven't and like not the rye bread but maybe you know the I don't know there's not. I don't think it's right in this but that dark. Ride a readiness the Brady malts. We like this one. You know it's going to the beer news of the day are well we're not too far into the new year and I wanted to bring this article up because it was it made some good points. Originally I was going through it and I was like well I was skeptical but then as I read the article it kind of won me over and I agree with a lot of the points. So these are the craft beer trends that need to go away in two thousand and seventeen and Number One of the list and this is going to be the most controversial one but it says poorly made hazy I P A's and so we have this trend right now. Everyone wants to make the Northeast style hazy I.P.A. and. Everyone is rushing to put out their version of it and they're saying that the quality on some of these knockoffs basically

aren't that good. Whether it's but not I put out an I.P.A. and. You know thrown flour in it to make it hazy or you know doing some hack during the brewing process that will make it hazy you know just to approximate the style. But I think that the point is. These north these breweries have been doing this for a while and they have developed the style and they kind of have it figure. It Out. So there are some breweries in the Sacramento area in L.A. that have done it right and there's some that maybe not quite there yet very fair point. I mean none of us want bad quality beer and there's some hazy eyepiece that I enjoy and you know I'm all for getting rid of bad quality beers who is opposed to that nobody. Yeah I mean I agree with that but I think also that beer is very subjective right like what you might like others might not. And so to say that something is the bad beer for the most part is subjective. Unless it's like a unanimous decision like this is a terrible bear taking short cuts to like write produce something that is not it's not what it's supposed to be so there's some Ruiz that have a north and they get the kid to give it old home pizza in the morning it pours clear. And then in the afternoon when things get stirred up a little bit. It's cloudy and when you have a beer that is that inconsistent. You know or oh it's cloudy once it cuts off the truck in the caves all churned up. But then after it sits for a few days and then you pour it it's clear or what about our

experience that we had when we had a cake that was probably the bottom of the first cake off of the Off The big that you know we had a cake that was almost all trub and the bar. Well how long was that like maybe two weeks ago. Two weeks ago and it's like man named at the end up saying that that was probably the first cake off that that and so you get just a bunch of crap and it was not good. Yeah but you think after a while you learn OK The first one you dump in the yeah you know you've got to have some quality standard that goes back to what Jeff is saying that what we want is good quality beer so whatever you need to implement in your production to make sure. You're getting good quality beer in consistently good quality but I doubt what we're looking for. I mean there's high quality hazy I.P.A. says high quality super clear transparent I.P.A. is it's a different style. And everybody has different preferences but I think everybody who appreciates good beer just wants high quality beer and I want consistent beer I want to go to spot and have a beer on tap. And if I can find that same beer on tap and spot B. I want the same taste. Number two using crushable as an adjective to describe here. I agree with this one completely I read a lot of beer reviews I write a lot of peer reviews I've never once used the word crushable you know they're going to say I've never I've never heard this I think a Bud Light where you poke a hole in the bottom so you can chug it that is crushable early and he used to crush. We're talking about they say Russia crushable is one where you can drink a lot of them. You know and we have we say the number of you know you can have a lot of these really easily. But and that's what crushable means but it's this war that gets used too much succession of all but more like do she it's not a she and I go on Beer Advocate and read the reviews of people right. It's too many people telling crushable crushable crushable it was my nickname in college. It's crushable min. I want a beer that has flavor. I don't want to beer that I can just pound over and over again I'm too old for that you know quality over quantity. Number three the obsession with new weird brews. Now. So the guy says he was at a brewery with great solid beer very list. Helo's a pills a few I.P.A. the ripe ale in Niger a Milk Stout a Russian Imperial Stout. And his friends looked at the chalk board and says with disappointment. Why don't they change up the list here. Come on. Yes you want to go to a brewery you want to try something new and. On this show every beer we try is new and we get obsessed with new and so I understand that what drives that frame of mind in that thinking line of thinking. But last weekend I went to written Joe's cabin up in kind of years. And I went to the store and I was looking for beer to get and I said you know what I'm going to get some tried and true beers and let's go with that. So I got the a twelve pack of hop Hunter. Here Nevada. And I got a

variety pack winter variety pack in Syria better and then I get into the next new story but also all of beers all perfectly drink a bowl we've had it before and both Joe and I commented at how good hot punter is such a great beer. You can just drink that one all night and so there's something to be said about going with just the tried and true and you don't have to try a different new beer you never had before every single time you drink beer. Well and I think we've talked about this a little bit before some breweries do things you like OK we're not ever going to brew the same beer twice and I respect the experimentation of that but at the same time from like I come from marketing background like you want staples that people are going to come back for right. Me personally I'm a creature of habit like a soon as I find something that I like I will continue to return to that because I'm a creature of habit and go OK Will. I want you know one or Celsius every time because I know that I like that beer. So I think there are two sides that point but so I put something up on our instrument page. Very recently probably two weeks ago where same mentality it's like there's so much new beer that comes out and I like the new beer. But I just

sat down I had a plan of the elder which I know is not easy for everybody to get but I just wanted to sit. On it. Have a tried and true. Excellent beer not think about it too much because I know the flavor I know the beer very well and just to sit down in my in my yard and enjoy that beer and that was a great event for me yet there's something that because. You're the day we're trying new beer all the time to write reviews take pictures. It's work right. You drink a beer. It's a lot of times it's

it's kind of a job and to drink a beer that you've had a thousand times and you don't think about you just drink it and enjoy it pretty good or continuing with the list here. Tap lists that haven't been updated and that happens from time to time multiple beers double buck Belgian triple quad bills and quad triple I.P.A. It's like they keep going more and more with the multiples quintuple whatever that annoyed them. You know I kind of like a fire that I like being able to say single I.P.A. double I.P.A. I know what I'm getting from those types of styles you know so I kind of like the distinction there. But. I do know there's not that much difference between a double IP and a triple I.P.A. but I'd be mad if something was sort of mislabeled in my mind if you sit down and have an I.P.A. that's nine percent and completely like sweet malts and super hot P. and it's really like a double or triple I.P.A. but it's labeled as an I.P.A. it's not what you were looking for. I think maybe what they were trying to get out there though is like OK we're starting our people Star our brewery starting to push the limits like OK well we have a triple A.P.A. now we're going to brew a quad I.P.A. and it's going to quintuple I.P.A. like if they continue to try to raise the bar that does seem ridiculous but the established like categories that we have now don't seem Riddick. To me. Yeah. That one's one misses a little bit for me. Where this thing really hits its stride. Is pedal bars. There's an epidemic plaguing our beloved craft beer industry. It's an infestation overwhelming brewery tasting rooms across the country not kettle sours or hazy I.P.A. as or over beers or triple Mocha Allman vanilla red velvet cinnamon porters the unrelenting wave of assholes really for brewery to brewery and sold as ghost ships known as pedal hoppers these vessels of do Sheree are not here to awaken his passengers to the marvels of your cities and neighborhoods but in craft beer scenes their sole purpose is

to deliver as much debauchery to these interlopers under the guise of sightsee logic. Whoever wrote that is a hero. Those are those like six people like like wagons where they all just get together as a party and like yeah yeah like a tour guide. Yeah it's like it seems like an expensive way to get drunk right. Like just who want to get drunk just go get drunk. This guy says a lot of craft breweries have banned it because when they get there they ask you have fireball got a normal beer lite beer

American beer. You know it's they're there. Yeah to get drunk on that or to enjoy beer. Yeah. So I enjoyed that one when I completely agree with wax dipped beer bottles. I mean when I came to talk. I was no friends. John Oliver would say how is this still a thing actually. How is it ever a thing. It really serves no purpose. It's a cheap marketing ploy. It's it's not expensive to dip a bottle and wax so but you can you get this error of quality. Oh it's dipped in wax. But it's a pain in the ass to anyone who wants. Drink the beer and it serves no purpose ice. I understand that but I sort of disagree to a level because I think as long as you save it for like the special release like an anniversary beer or something really rare where it gets better with age and it has a cork in it. I think it serves a purpose just put some foil on it or put a little bow on top of it. I do not need wax to fight through and there's a good don't I agree with Jeff on the cork thing but like I don't know if

you have a shitty capping system. I guess then maybe you want to wax it. But if it's just purely for like ornamentation it's no no capping is easy. You can buy a twenty dollar device to do it it's not that complicated. And the last one I P.A.'s with

garbage added to them. This is a thing right now just this week's hearing about it came out with their side car their pale ale with orange juice added to it or whatever it's like they're orange I.P.A. and they came out of their torpedo but with Pickle tropical pineapple added to it and I had the beer last weekend. It's fine I had a taste of it last night as well at the beer fit at the at the Dallas are NOT be serviceable it was serviceable now it's crushable No This issue is that they're not

selling Pale Ale anymore. I mean it's not flying off the shelves people have moved on to other stuff their great fruit scope and or their you know whatever so in order to stay competitive they're having to put out a beer that is a little more universally palatable. So they're orange IP orange pale ale in the grapefruit. Pineapple I.P.A. is what their answer is but I don't know I think the beers were fine. I don't think you need to add garbage to them. I think. That some of the adding garbage to things is going to be somewhat of a fad that is going to pass and. Breweries like here in about are going to have to continue to put out their staples like pale because people will revert back to them for the same reason that we said we would earlier for you know like you want to go back to like a home base or one that you've had a thousand times that you know exactly what it tastes like and you like it and pale I think for a lot of people is that beer but I think a lot of like our craft beer industry right now is at an interesting spot where there's a ton of good I P S out there and I appreciate like the experimental miss of it and trying new things. I mean we do want to try new beers and a lot of it will be a fad that just goes away but some of it will stick and I mean every once in while there's an I.P.A. where there's something added to it. That's really tasty but I think you have to try a lot of different things until you find one of those that really works. And so. I'm OK with that but sometimes it is a little too extreme where you go to a place where there's five I.P.S. and every one of them has something added to it where it's like jeez I just want a normal I.P.A. agreed really quick. The other news story. If you drink in Syria out of beer and you don't live in California then make sure that you're not drinking glass shards you know it was all over the news all over the news doesn't affect us here but it can affect some people so be careful out there if you're serious about it is North Carolina Syria better. OK let's get into the next beer. This is one probably the one I was most looking forward to looking at the lineup tonight. It is from bootleggers brewery in Fullerton California. This is the mint chocolate Porter I was looking forward to this one too. I've never had a. Beer before. So that's like new territory. This is another one that our buddy Hugo picked up he is shout out to Hugo you know he's one of our L.A. area coordinators and he and every weekend he's going around to different breweries and he was. Probably two weeks ago he was in Fullerton which is a suburb of L.A. and he picked up this amongst you know many other beers and we've had a lot of beers and bootleggers that we liked and I'm looking for to this as well. Elaine when Joel takes the whiff of a beer in his smile goes up and he leaves back he's like oh boy. So it's Mel's exactly like I wanted to. So the the Mint you can smell meant to but you can also feel the mint. Yes which is great. This is going to have something to it and I'm excited to track it smells exactly like I hoped it would which is to say that it is like the The Dark cocoa like characteristics with mint on it. It smells a little bit like mint chocolate to buy

scream. I'm excited. I don't like mint and so I don't know if I'm like this but when I smell it smells like there's a little green men candy really. Yes exactly like those Yeah. Also a little girl scout cookie ish. It's everything I ever wanted. It's not bad. I like it. I mean the the mince there but it's not it's not overwhelming. Which which I think that that is important because you could really easily overdo it and I don't find it overwhelming Joanna's So if you take some winter fresh and you chew and some gum and you're the bar and you for it to spit out your gum. And you ask for a porter and it has some chocolate taste to it you're getting the beer you're going to get I'll just grab some winter fresh gum and drink a port and that's what you're going to get the. Chocolate. I think is too reserved in this beer. I could use more chocolate and because the chocolate is low the mint takes over. Yep and it tastes like green Nyquil to me. And this is a winter seasonal I'm looking at the

bottle and again this is from a suburb of L.A. And that's just the label has a picture of a barn completely covered with snow. It's never snowed in Fullerton. But it's interesting. This is a this is one that I think is appropriate for this time of year it's not a bad beer. It's just I feel like I've had this taste before on accident because I've been chewing gum. So it's a little medicinal to me is my I won't say well but I will say little bit medicinal on the on the mint applying Andy's trademarked

third to the parole. It is cocoa but the kind of mint that I'm getting right now is like the mint water that they use the dental hygienist use to wash out like when she has heat. Yeah you know I'm talking about. Yes I do. It's like slightly watery it's a light bodied beer and I think I get it. It's not a bad beer there's going to be people who buy this beer and they're going to absolutely love it it's just not it's just not up my alley. I almost wish they were but if they haven't then I wish they would have been if they have than I wish they were up to like some lactose and to the yeah. Creamy to like carry them and the chocolate and it could be that good last beer really creamy and so it's a little bit of an adjustment. Yeah it's good it's almost like it's molasses instead of chocolate. It's that sort of sweetness but not the merry laugh I don't like cocoa. It's not the chocolate. Yeah I'm glad I tried it but I don't think I'd ever come back to it again. All right well we're going to take a break when we come back we have our Strange Brew followed by for more different corners all that when we come back right here on the pier that a podcast. Or if you enjoy this podcast sure you can shop on Amazon through our website. Sure you can go to lure and sign up. But if you really want to help us then share this podcast with your beer drinking friends. That's the best way that we can spread the word about beer the day increase our listener ship is if you tell your friends about us. Most people don't know what a podcast is or how to listen to one. So sometimes that requires you to show them how to get the podcast app on their phone and how to subscribe to it and then you can also rate and review us on i Tunes or wherever you get your podcasts and that helps us move up the rankings make us more visible and that's how we get more listeners here so what help us out. Tell a friend. Let's go back to the show but. Welcome back to the show. This is our Strange Brew segment where we go out to the fridge and find the strangest beer we can find that fits the theme tonight's theme porters Strangely enough our only canned beer tonight as well. This is the pots of mamma Porter from evil twin brewing in collaboration with two Rhodes brewing Eva. Twins in Stratford Connecticut. This is strange because it's an ale brewed with sweet potatoes purple mice. Mais mice mice and mice mice like corn. That's Peruvian in Chili Peppers. He he doesn't smell very strange yet doesn't really smell there's not much room to speak of and I smells like a porter but it does not smell like strange group order yellow but I'm alt. Little bit of a row small little molasses small but not much at all and I mean it looks like a porter it's. All of

these sort of look a little thin I mean none of them have a thick body but it's sort of the dark Coca-Cola color. Dark brownish with a little red ants to it with a fairly thick foamy had ten had. Yeah I mean I'm tasting it it's like it's a little sweet

on the porter side just taste like they didn't wash the sweet potatoes too much kill a lot of dirt flavor to it but there's not really too much to this one. It's just a porter with a little bit of dirt flavor. The first thing I notice is that I don't get any chili pepper. There's apparently is not hot a super hot chili pepper. But I would still expecting something from that and I'm not getting any of it. Me either. I'm not really getting much sweet potatoes. I don't know about purple My It's got

kind of like a dry eye like chalky powdery mouthfeel which you know I like from time to time and a beer. There's a little bit of a malt or you can get in that dark flavor the earthy Yes some earthy hops. Yes. Yeah earthy. I don't know house to describe it. I feel like I actually am getting a little bit of a corn flavor. Like if you think of some of like the like the loggers we've had or some of the ills we've had that like have that corn in it like I feel like I can pick that out. But it's very subtle there's a really lingering flavor like. It leaves a mouth coating when you're done. If you just take a step and then just you know wait ten or twenty seconds you taste a sort of numb in mouth coating that is pleasant. It's not bad but it's dry it is dry. I do think the Chili Peppers are there. It's really reserved and it's a cumulative effect where you have to drink three four five sips to be able to taste it on the aftertaste but I did I think it's very subtle which in my opinion is the only way to do it. Chili Pepper beer but it's so subtle in this case that it's barely perceptible. But I do think it is perceptible I don't feel like we're giving this beer justice because I will tell you that if I was poured a pint of this I'd really enjoy drinking it. I mean it's got good flavors. It's just unique in the aspect that it's not what it claims to be well out. I would say it's not what it claims to be. It's just you're not getting those distinct flavors that it's it's advertising correct when we have a strange brew we expected to be strange. This is something that you know nothing strange about this be you know it's very pleasant. You know the mint chocolate Porter we had earlier was much stranger stranger in the category. I think what it is though like when we talk about the earthiness of this. I think it really mutes like any sort of chocolate in coffee and toffee type of. There was that you traditionally get in a porter and this taste much more like. It's not it's earthy and it doesn't it doesn't have these or robust flavors that a lot of porters have I completely agree with everything. Joel said I think he hit the nail on the head. It's very enjoyable it's very drink bull but as far as what it is advertised to be I'm not really getting any of what it's advertised to be. Yeah. Not a bad beer though. No not at all totally drink ball. OK Well let's move into the next one we have from hopping frog Brewing Company in Akron Ohio. We have in fusion a coffee Porter. Like a a movie for beer. So I had a couple of this breweries beers on tap. When I've been in Cincinnati and so I'm actually looking forward to trying this in fusion coffee Porter. I've always been impressed with their beers. Was the easiest bottle I've ever opened the cap came off almost like it wasn't on all the way maybe a ship with some wax around it. Both on pours darker. Well kind of an amber Ruby you'll at the bottom own flavor is impressive on this one just lots of chocolate malts. I'm still an hour Oma Yeah you Roma is it's amazing super inviting Oh wow yeah that's right that's why I was talking about the aroma. It smells like the best like hand crafted. Mocha that you've ever had like that a spread so dark roast coffee with like

quality cocoa. That's what it smells like to me you know I mean this is our first coffee porter of the night. It's really our only coffee Porter and there's a lot of coffee pours out there but it really comes through on the nose I mean it's coffee it's chocolate it's very rich and rather one of the most aromatic beers I've ever seen. Yeah I hope it tastes half as good as it smells. It's just it does it's such an overwhelming the room with the coffee. It's fantastic. Wow. So I feel I feel like a lot of times with coffee porters and coffee stout there's a tendency to overdo the coffee right. And then it's like it's either too bitter or it feels like it's an over extracted coffee with the beer. This one. They've done it perfectly where it doesn't taste like freeze dried coffee. It doesn't taste like too much coffee it's definitely coffee but it's it's the perfect amount. Yeah I think you said like it's a well crafted like Mocha but it's beer and you're not getting any of the dairy flavor but it is amazing. I get some of that they're like I get a lot of the coffee but I get like a vanilla cream consistency but just not the milk Yeah ever. I mean you get that feel of the like the creaminess of it but I don't get the milk which is it's nice to be or you want the beer to overtake it. I get some like there might be some lactose in here I don't know if there is but I get like the creaminess from you know I drink a ton of coffee but I always add and like some sort of half and half or something and I get a lot of that flavor to sort of round out the. The bitterness of some coffee can have this beer is quite sweet too like it took me a sip just to get accustomed to it because it's definitely a notch up on the sweetness than we had

on the previous beers. But ton of flavor here I mean they're really packed into the lot and the coffee. It really actually makes me think I'm getting some caffeine even though I know that's not the case with coffee beers but it kind of his waking me up a little bit. I was you. I feel like I'm pretty picky about my coffee and I'm picky about my beer and in general I am disappointed with coffee beers because I feel like most of the time the coffee is overemphasized like overwhelming. This one I feel like it's really good. Third sip the after taste is a little bit more coffee ish than I would like it's like that. You know like a leftover coffee in the pot when you drink it cold because you're desperate and that after taste is coming through a

little bit but I still think this is a fantastic beer. I'm getting a little nuttiness and I did not get it at first but then I was Hazel not like yeah it is hazy Yeah I have and I don't like peanut or something like if you like Amorello or hazelnuts

like that kind of coffee. You know those flavored coffee things that you the friend Elica but it's complex because to me the flavor is changing a bit from the first step to the second step to the theater and second as it warms up it becomes a little a

little more nutty. I like this beer. I was you. I'm really impressed with this beer incoming transmission. You've got mail. Thomas This week we had a few comments of the beer that a website. Every single page has a comment section below and so you can leave a comment anywhere on the site on any beer on any news article anything you want to comment on you can do that and this week we had held review a new member on the site left a comment on the lily ale from Burr Oak Room company in Columbia Missouri Nominet one good neighbor in Columbia. Yeah well Jeff and I went there and we had this beer that we brought back and headed as our strange brew on one episode the St Louis episode. And this as I recall this tasted like Fruity Pebbles cereal.

That's what I fear it's strange brews we've ever had this fantastic beer and unlike any beer you've ever had in your life. So if you can find that one definitely seek it out held reviews said I didn't expect anything and I got five beers I want to

share with my more open craft beer enthusiasm definitely cream sickle Yeah it does have that cream Singletary after that. So definitely good beer and I kind of forgot about it and then tell they commented on it so that was good for a month for brewing and L.A. brewery that is up and coming in. Does a lot of the East Coast type of releases and they have the whole waiting in line thing which I love. J.M. five six to my local watering hole conveniently four blocks from where I work I way the line for all caps when it was released and I'll wait again for it was nice to see a west coast I.P.A. back in the game four point five percent Westside J.M. five six two is one of our biggest L.A. fans. He lives in I don't know where he lives with some of the

L.A. area but he's always out and about at our local where I live close to where I live I go to all the great ferries around. Yeah well thank you for the comment and a new user under the day bubbles. They opened up a new account. I think for the sole purpose of commenting on this beer. They commented on the idiot I.P.A. from cord out of the company bubbles is comment. My choice of beer for the inauguration. Oh boy bubbles is from San Francisco. Anyway if you have comments any. I want to leave them. You can do so. I'm here today dot com go on Facebook. We post them here that it is Facebook every single day. Facebook dot com slash of the beer the day we're on Twitter at beer the day and we post it up there every single day and on Instagram at near that a site you can also e-mail us feedback at beer the day. Dot com wasn't bubbles the name of Michael Jackson's monkey. It was maybe the same levels just an hour that's going to the next beer we have from Alameda Brewing Company in Alameda Oh no it's for Portland Oregon. This is the Stubbs Old Crow hazelnut Porter. So that's confused me a couple of times over the last couple years. The Alameda brewery in Portland Oregon. Yeah. Alameda is an island in California off of Oakland in the bay. So when you're in California and you hear Alameda you think they are island. Not the case there's a distillery and Alameda that I like been there it what it's called but they make gin. Sang or something that's it's in like it's in a hangar at an airport twenty five or something or twenty four and that's a pretty under thing or one day or one day or one vodka. That's right now that we've had there Jim before this is a HIS WILL NOT Porter. I'm not willing and he's I get get a Roma it's not his owner. Oh most I almost feel like I'm getting like molasses big I could see that some dark fruit on the aroma. It doesn't smell like a porter. I really like the aroma. But it's not. What I was anticipating because Guinea pine on the smell. Yes like to Christmas pine that you see in some of the Christmas porters and this is a again most of these are the same color but this is a dark brown. Colored beard just a little bit red highlights not as much as some of the other ones. And a pretty dark khaki

khaki brown colored you know bubbly bubbly head and really thick head lace you know that look at that sticks to the side of the US tons of lacing on this glass so have tried this yet. I actually get a little bit of like chili room too so I'm shocked

on this beer because the first thing that comes to my mind is oh it's got a little bit of like a sour flavor to it it does like a sour beer but not in a bad way. It's a little tart. Yeah it is tart not what I would have expected. What is dark tart. Yeah I think you're right. Like I'm not getting any hazelnut. On this at all. There's some type of Belgian character is to yes but also a sour character it looks like a cranberry like Cherry Yeah but it's not bad. It's just not at all. If someone told me oh are not as described in our brewery messed up and we accidentally put some sour it's important to gather and it turned out pretty good. So we just bought it. We called hazelnut Oh if I take some expense here without seeing it. I would expect it to be like a sort of a red colored cherry red. Slightly sour like where it's just starting to ferment cherries. Do we think it was bad. No it didn't. I don't think so at all. It's not bad but you know but it's not a hazel didn't know this is not it then that's what I mean did it turn or solve it like and I still that that is to see. I still like what I'm tasting so I don't think it's been contaminated or anything because we're getting a ton of carbonation and I don't see anything in there that would say that it's contaminated I agree. So it doesn't taste like it's just all. I mean I'm shocked. This is maybe we should do a class action lawsuit on. This this misrepresentation here. No it's not bad though it's just unique. I think it's

actually really good. I like it if this is how the beer is intended to be. It's kind of a sour Porter. And maybe it's just mixing it up from everything we've had tonight. But I really enjoyed this flavor. No I did too. The problem is there's nothing on the bottle to describe what the trying to go for it all is just labeling in the government warning. I think the thing that I'm most floored by is hazelnut is a pretty like unmistakable flavor and there's nothing there. I'm getting like dark cherries. Figs prunes you know sort of dark fruit you can think of that's what I get from this beer in a slow or slightly tart way but perplexed you know that's completely different than any beer we've had. Tonight. They just need to call it something else. I mean like it tastes a little bit like a sparrow aged which we have a couple barely coming up a kind of I want to I kind of want to try and get it. Another bottle to see like if maybe they should have put wax on the top of the cap there. I know it's definitely. So there's a there's plenty of carbonation there's nothing that's wrong with the beer there's no off putting. Like no it's not offering at all. It hasn't gone bad. It's just there are some things that right though that border it taste like a like a sour. Yeah like a sour Porter that is loaded with those dark fruits you talk to. Mildly sour it's not what I would say it's tart more than it sour. I'd say it was like aged in like penal or barrels or so. Yeah exactly. Yeah it's like a little wine in it or something a little Woody Oak It makes a little bit fruity which just hints of chocolate barely any barely any malt roasted I actually really like it. I think it's delicious. You know it's not bad. That's the thing is. It's just confusing it's not what we're expecting. So far this is the best beers and it's also the strangest beer we've had today. This could be the Strange Brew the Old Crow hazelnut Porter that tastes like a cherry sour. All right for beer number eight. We have the dirty old man. Imperial rive Porter I was also looking forward to trying this one because I think that I don't know that I've ever had a ripe order. You definitely had a dirty old man. From tyranny now is that how you pronounce it. I think so.

It's from Wisconsin tire tyranny Brewing Company Lake Mills Wisconsin seven point nine percent. We're cranking up the alcohol here a little bit now getting into the eight percent range. Yeah the spear. And the next one are both barrel aged the only ones tonight. And this one's aged in raw a whiskey barrels. This one smells amazing. It is and it's. So it's blended and sixty percent of this is in right whiskey barrels and forty percent. They say is a malt beverage. So I guess they must age part of it

in barrels and then blend it together. I'm really smelling the malt and you do. I'm not getting boozy this have I don't know. Beryl aged beers no boozing this just. A nice light bready malt aroma. But not a whole lot there on the aroma. So we're talking sorry we were talking about leasing on last on this one laces even more. It's crazy thick. Khaki head pretty dark that sticks around. It's very dark half very dark and you cannot see through this at all. This is the is this the darkest bears

night so far I think sure and like when you hold it up to the light. There's a little bit of redness in the glass but it's a pretty dark brown color just smells like we said this. Well I think it smells amazing but I'm not getting Rai or whiskey or

anything. It's more multi how I just had a sip and wow that's a pretty amazing beer and when you see whiskey barrels you think there's going to be an alcoholic kick to it not the case. This is like the most reserves mood creamy. Well balanced taste. You could ever get I don't. For those very intense sweetness on the end it reminds me of drinking coke like it's like a concentrated sweetness and that's not a bad thing like yeah but to even use the word Coke in the sentence to describe his beer I feel like is an insult. Just because of how. Like buttery whiskey sweet creamy this beer is I mean if you're getting all of the whiskey without any of the harshness that comes after a whiskey. You know little kick at all but it is there somehow they've

captured the whiskey flavor without the whiskey kick and it is impressive. I think the thing that you said that like perfect is buttery It's buttery it's the carbonation too it's like a buttery creamy mouth feel but the carbonation on the spear is

perfect. It's smooth It's creamy it's its whiskey crumble. Les Yes it is amazing. Alicia's you know you take a sip and you expect there to be some type of kick or some type of I'm going to pay the price for you know nothing. It's just perfectly drink a

bowl. It's this is an amazing beer. I think rember really is an excellent description because it's a little bit of a little bit of chocolate little bit of caramel Well a creamy vanilla. It's a complex pear like you could draw a lot of different flavors from this. But it's just smooth and silky and just goes down easily for seven point nine percent. I'm upset that there's only one of these beers I'm going to have like this is we got to find this somehow when I go back home I got another one waiting for me because I got two of these and I brought one up here for this weekend but yeah this is excellent like there's some Oakie woodiness to this. I mean it is this is an awesome beer. So this is the best I would tell that I would say right now the

podcast is the best beer I've had this year. Besides probably to my four Melbourne double I.P.A. because I like I.P.S. But other than that. This is the best beer I've had this year I was excited to try this beer because I don't think I've had a ripe order before and it did not disappoint me like it is the rice bit isn't really good. Yeah it's very subtle but it's a really good. My complaint about this beer and it's a pretty big complaint. It's called Dirty Old Man. There's nothing dirty about this being I don't know I mean maybe a clean old man but. Dirty there's Of The Ring True want to clean old me but I don't get much pride like when I think of a wry. You know in a beer with Ryo expect some like spiciness. A little little little bit of that on the by like a bite on the finish and there doesn't not appear to be any bit of that in here. I mean this is smooth. Wow this is excellent. Really really good. All right let's move into the last beer the night we have firm ale works in Williamsburg Virginia the brewer of the number one pumpkin beer of two thousand and sixteen that we had on our Pumpkin Show. This is the bourbon barrel Porter I misspelled bourbon on the sheet here. Forgive me bourbon nine percent who really jumped up yeah. We were hovering around in the five six range and now we're up to nine not going to complain about that. Oh man this smells like a shot of alcohol. Yes yes it does. I don't know how else to describe the euro Mother them thick thick just smells thick bourbon and molasses it smells like you know on a hot summer day. A lot of this is a porter but we've had a lot of bourbon barrel aged outs and they all have that the the good ones have the the woody the oak he little bit of boozing this in the Roma that we've gone through else boozy a little bit. I don't not in a bad way. You know not don't want that way if it's bourbon barrel you want a little bourbon barrel when you're a room. I'm a bourbon drinker and I want that but this is a beer. This is this is as dark as the last beer we had it's probably has a little bit less of a leg. It's not as thick as the last beer we had Yeah the lacing is a little bit better but still a varied. Dark and the head is that or khaki Brown it's dark and khaki It's a dark light brown colored had I don't know how to describe your room other than it's like very slightly busy not in a bad way. And caramel malts malt and bourbon. Yeah. This is going to require the three separate because this is more alcoholic than the last any beer we've had tonight so the first sip does have a little bit of that. Who you know this is a problem because in its own category for what it is I'm getting it. This is a very good beer and I almost wish that we didn't have the beer we had before because I don't think we're going to give this. This beer justice because I've had a lot of bourbon barrel ales and stouts and porters and this one is very good and just it's just a different type of flavor that we're getting than what we had in our previous first step. I've only taken one first sip reminded me of port. It's it's pretty sweet. There is a. A wine like element to this beer. That's a little bit fruity Yes I get a little bit more wood an oak Laver's than the last beer. I think there's some grape in this grape in figure. Yeah. I'm really like it and after so after I tasted it. I go back and smell it and it smells like port lot. It's one of those I take a sip and then instead of his gold plated down I draw it into the back of my mouth. You know slowly because I know it's strong. So you create like a little little vakeel straw. And slowly bring it back. Yet the lingering taste is a port on your tongue. If you can so it's really are mining your port. So what flavors are you guys getting because I'm getting. Molasses molasses a lot of the last a little bit of the Nella. A little bit of honey but just barely any honey and then the little bit that great flavor on the African some dark chocolate and some dark fruits. You know this is getting into that range where the bourbon barrel aged out where which is a huge style we've had many many of and they range between nine percent and sixteen percent. The big seven percent range of beer. And so this is at the

lower end of that but it does have a full flavor of all the flavors you expect. For that style of beer but at nine percent. It seems to have a little bit more alcoholic presence than you would expect for nine percent for the style you normally if I if I taste just now I had to guess all this is coming eleven or twelve percent Yeah Yeah Yeahs it just tastes and smells so much of alcohol. I want to think that's where I like the pork part comes then like it seems like it's more on par with like a wine at eleven or twelve percent or I seventeen like it bites a little bit not in a bad way but it does bite like that a little bit and a little bit a little boozy bite it makes you drink it slowly. I mean this is one of the bears that will age well you can put this in your cellar and two years from now it's going to be. Just as good as if not better even more smooth and just super drink a ball a year or two. This would be phenomenal. That's the good thing about the show tonight is that some of these beers we've had for years. Some of them. We just got some of them have been age for a while and you can't. There's nothing that stops you from storing these beers whereas the I.P.S. that we get we're having to try and get drink them quickly because the change. I never had a bad beer from works and. Williamsburg Virginia. Only had two Both were excellent agreed. Men that pumpkin beer. That was so good it makes me look forward to our next pumpkin beer podcast. It makes me look forward to our next beer from ale works really really good. All right well we've run the gamut here tonight with the porters Jeff you want to recount the rules we've had tonight we'll figure out what our favorite of the day is yeah so we had nine beers tonight we

started out with the mammoth Brewing Company double nut brown and then the Tioga Sequoia Brewing Company sugar pine cocoa vanilla porter in the Highland Brewing Company meal Porter and right before the break we had the bootleggers brewery mint chocolate Porter. After the break our strange brew that wasn't that strange but an excellent beer and on the last was the. Mama Porter. Which was brewed a sweet potatoes purple my ass and he punched chili peppers in the infusion of coffee Porter from hopping frog in Ohio. Stubbs Old Crow his on up order from Alameda burning company the dirty old man Imperial ripe order from tyranny and they bring company. And we just wrapped up with the ale works bring company bourbon barrel porter or that's been the we'll see who goes first. Thank you ladies first tonight. So this whole show was my jam. I love porters and so all of these beers to me were good. I would drink any of them if given a choice. The decision is hard. I. They raided the mall. And a lot of them were tied. But I'm going to have to choose the dirty old man Imperial ripe Porter It was excellent and to steal jewels words right out of his mouth because I think he summarized it perfectly. It's buttery and it's a whisky crimper Les. It was amazing. The infusion coffee Porter by have been fried was fantastic and so was the bourbon barrel porter for male works but I am choosing the dirty old man. All right. I'm glad I get to go second because I don't like to sound like too broken ever record. But lot of good beers on Tonight Show. I tend to go to skew heavier. So obviously the second half of the show is probably where my beers and we come from. Although we did have several good ones in the first half but I have to choose the dirty old man Imperial Imperial ripe order. This beer. My God is it's like it's it's perfection. It's it's so drinkable it's smooth it's. Great flavor. It's everything you want in a porter jokingly I started out the show saying that we were going to find our. Our mission was to find the the best the greatest porter in the world world but I think I said I think that'll be the title of the show we might have found it. But you know spent. I didn't know that you know we had nine beers from around the country but I don't think we had a possibility of finding the greatest border in the world but we might have stumbled upon it. Tonight. So that's my beer the day. So I agree with you guys and dirty old man was awesome. I rated two beers exactly the same the. Radioman in the mail works bourbon barrel Porter both were the two best beers and I. And just to mix it up I'm going to go with the works as my beer of the day. And I'm going to pick that one because it had a little heavier body and I am a I.P.A. drinker and a stout drinker and this was the one that tasted most like a stout. And it had a little bit more of the barrel edge flavor and a little a little booze here which I like. But man that the dirty old man was excellent and I'm so tempted to pick that but I want to go to a works to mix it up just so it's not a unanimous vote and I because both beers were phenomenal. So that's my pick bourbon barrel Porter works. So there's no way in hell. This is going to be a tie. Tonight. So there's four of us here two of us have already chosen dirty old man and I am choosing the dirty old man for sure it is the best beer I've had all year. I'm already trying to figure out how I can get more and so when you're in situation where all you want to do is share a beer with your friends and tell them how great this beer is and just hope that your friends can enjoy the moment that you just had that says something about a beer and so I will tell you that that is my beer of the day and that should be

the beer of the day and that might be the beer of the year because of how great it was from the from a stout answer from a porter standpoint so dirty old man. I tip my hat to you and I also tip my hat to Dallas and Jeff for finding these beers every single beer we had tonight was amazing. There was not one bad beer that we had tonight. Not at all so and I actually want to give a shout out to the Sugar Pie and Coco vanilla Porter too. That was a very close second or third runner up like it was hard to make a decision that beer is excellent for me. Agreed. If we found the best beer twenty seventeen. I mean I hope that's not the kid. I mean it's going to be a long year. I wasn't close out the former show I'm glad we got some but it was a try.

You never know where you to get nine beers and we lucked out. We found some really good ones and a couple really good ones. So they leave us your comments feedback at here. The day dot com or go to the website leader comments there we're on Facebook.

We're on Instagram. We're on Twitter. We want to hear from you this show is much better when it we have feedback from our listeners so definitely leave us your comments and we will see you in two weeks for Jeff Miller, Joel Minor, Britton Minor, I'm Dallas Heliker. We'll see you next time right here on the Beer of the Day Podcast.