Black Jack Porter
Free State Brewing Co.

Beer Geek Stats
From:
Free State Brewing Co.
 
Kansas, United States
Style:
Baltic Porter
ABV:
7.9%
Score:
Needs more ratings
Avg:
4.14 | pDev: 7.49%
Reviews:
4
Ratings:
9
Status:
Active
Rated:
Sep 22, 2014
Added:
Mar 01, 2005
Wants:
  3
Gots:
  1
Free State's version is a rich, malty beer with notes of chocolate and roasted malt overtones. The flavor has been mellowed by conditioning on a blend of French and American oak. Served unfiltered. (O.G. - 18.4P/1074. Hops - 30 IBUs)

The Battle of Black Jack was part of the struggle to make Kansas a free state. In May of 1856, pro-slavery men destroyed buildings and newspaper presses in Lawrence, Free State headquarters. John Brown's company then killed five pro-slavery men on Pottawatomie Creek. In retaliation, Henry C. Pate raided nearby Palmyra and took three prisoners. Early on the morning of June 2, Brown attacked Pate's camp in a grove of black jack oaks about 3 miles east of Baldwin City, KS. Both sides had several wounded and numerous desertions before Pate and 28 men surrendered. Brown claimed he had only 15 men left. As evidence of civil war, this fight received much publicity and excited both the North and the South.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by 22Blue:
Photo of 22Blue
Rated by 22Blue from Kansas

4/5  rDev -3.4%

Sep 11, 2014
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3.75 by Hellpop65 from Kansas

Sep 22, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by stephensinner from Missouri

Mar 11, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by jaydoc from Kansas

Nov 16, 2013
Photo of Groenebeor
Reviewed by Groenebeor from California

4.09/5  rDev -1.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Pours a dark nut brown with a medium tan head with minimal lacing.

Smells of toffee, chocolate, lots of dark chocolate with mollasses

Tastes a bit like rye bread, very crusty, chewy, with chocolate, faint coffee, faint hops

Very stout like for a porter, but I guess it's a baltic porter? I'm not sure the style is correct here.
Dec 15, 2012
 
Rated: 4.5 by Chuck_25 from Kansas

Dec 01, 2012
Photo of Jips
Reviewed by Jips from Illinois

4.74/5  rDev +14.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
Back after a long absence, thank god since I'm moving out of the area and didn't want to miss this tremendous brewery's take on my favorite style. I'm thusly biased for it on 2 counts, but I've had porters from more widely distributed breweries disappoint.

Poured black with a thin head. Smelled of coffee, chocolate, slight vanilla, and heaven. Not intense nor watered down, just right. Taste is those (heavier on the chocolate side for me) + enough hops to quell what would be overwhelming sweet. Low on carbonation and just a hair watery. Both make it more drinkable, though the latter is atypical of the nigh-motor oil consistency I've come to expect.

Exceeded my expectations, wish this was there regularly. Would drink this every non-scorching day.
Mar 09, 2010
Photo of Goliath
Reviewed by Goliath from Illinois

4.13/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
This beer pours black and completely opaque. Some nice cascading effect coming out of the tap. A large inch and a half light brown head formed on top and lingered with nice retention leaving really great lacing.

The aroma was pretty nice. Sweet malts, giving mostly caramel and chocolate tones.

Great taste too. Chocolate and coffee are the dominant flavors in this brew.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, creamy, and lightly carbonated.

Drinkability is fairly high with good flavors and presumeably low alcohol. A nice treat indeed.
Aug 30, 2008
Photo of JEdmund
Reviewed by JEdmund from Kansas

4.33/5  rDev +4.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
Just had this for the first time last night. It has a tremendous and full roasty/coffee flavor that I really enjoyed. Nice hop bite to it as well. There wasn't a sweetness to it, which was good as I was sorta expecting that to tame the hops and roasted flavors. The smell is good -- more of the roasted malts/coffee -- but not that big. Was black with a tan head, just like a porter ought to.

This is a much bigger porter compared to their Populist Porter (and granted, they were going for a lighter porter with that one). I really enjoyed it.
Mar 09, 2007
Black Jack Porter from Free State Brewing Co.
Beer rating: 4.14 out of 5 with 9 ratings