Boucanier
L'Amère à Boire

 

Thick, rich, black, creamy tan head tons of lacing. Served at temperature. Gentle, round roastiness and nutty aromas/flavors, hard water, very drinkable, very balanced, very English. Really solid example of a porter.

 

this beer is absolutely not retired anymore. was back on this weekend. the pour is an inky jet black that gives rise to a couple inches of off white whipped topping. the nose is a little heavy on the coffee notes for a porter i think, but the malt profile is rich and roasty, and there is a certain earthy aroma that i found quite endearing. the flavor is great, more of an english porter than an american on from what i taste. that characterisic caramel malt intermixed with the big boy grains. hopped only to balance, and may be a little under done in that regard, but i think the taste comes together nicely all the same. full body, robust carbonation, nice combo. drinkable for its depth and weight. i was under the impression however that a porter is always an ale, and this was listed as a lager noire, meaning that it cannot then be a porter? any clarification on this point would be wonderful. as for the beer itself, make a point to check it out.

Served in an Imperial pint glass, this porter pours a thick head, and has a deep black color with a molasses bouquet; however the appearance belies the body, which had an undeterminable texture. I detected a moderately balanced beer with a minor spreading of taste; though the aftertaste did linger a bit. This was a nice beer, not the best I had here - and certainly not the best porter. Still this is a wonderful micro that really tries.

Appearance: Dark as black china ink, with a perfectly compact off-grey head with little bubbles that worked really hard to fight through the thick layer and slowly pop to the open air. It reminded me of when I make crème brulée, before adding the sugar on top and burn it up with a blowtorch.

Smell: A little coffee in the nose, and some shy, minty hops that were hard to dectect, even though hops in cask ales usually explode out of the gate.

Taste: Plenty of java and some kind of high cocoa chocolate, like one from Equador I tasted recently. Taste is fine, it's the mouthfeel that seems to need a little help. The malt is a little too mellow, you can feel somethings missing in the middle. The strong coffee and cocoa does a pretty good job to overcome this, but it really showed in the first 3-4 sips that the malt was a little lacking. Decent bitter finish that was more rapini/arugula than hoppy.

Given the lower alcohol, English yeast and U.K. hops, really an English style porter. Creamy, chocolate malts. light mouthfeel. Light roast aroma. Nice dark colour with good head and abundant lace. Quaffable, though good use different malt profile. Real ale.

Dark brown, nearly black beer with ruby highlights and a generous tan head. Seemed to be nitro-dispensed due to cascading bubbles when it was served and it left rings of foam on the glass after each sip. Low malt aroma with plenty of floral and earthy hop character. Moderate bitterness and quite malty, with some chocolate to start things off. Hop flavour was mostly earthy, with some floral as well. Finishes off-dry and slightly roasted. The body was a bit light with a grainy texture and perhaps a bit of astringency. The menu mentioned the use of Goldings and Fuggles hops in this beer and it definitely showed. There was certainly more hop character in this beer than I expected, which was a good thing. A decent session beer.

A nice looking beer, appropriately dark with brown creamy head. Chocolatey aroma. Chocolate malt flavor predominates with a nice hop flavor balance, but not bitter. Smooth in the mouth but on the thin side for body. A clean and pleasant drinking beer but not outstanding.

This was my second pint at L'amére à boire! The color is a dark chocolate one, even to the point that my friend asked the waitress if she had served me some chocolate milk. I hated the temperature that it was served, I personally dislike beer served at around 12c. But, the aromas that I got from my pint were great, chocolate, coffee, caramel and a smokey taste that stayed for hours after. It was like smoking a cigar where you still have the taste after and it wasnt bad. I'm not a porter fan, so I am kind of biased but I did liked my experience with that one.

Very black, and opaque when served, it came topped with a tan, foamy, meringue like head. Pleasant roasted aroma. Taste is mild with roasted notes. Mouthfeel is on the the thin side. Not bad, not awesome. Nice to see this on cask, though. Uses Maris Otter, Crystal and Chocolate malts.

The weakest beer at this brewpub IMO. This porter was a nice brown colour with a small head. The aromas were of watered down porter, chocolatey and malty, but not enough of either. The taste? More of the same. Watered down chocolate and coffee flavors as well as some roasted malt flavors. The mouthfeel was very watery and the drinkability suffered because of this beers low points.
Pass on this and have a Ressurection Porter on cask from Du Ciel!
-F