Pinnacle Porter
Naylor's Brewery

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Nov 2013, so it's just out of date. Acquired a while back from a local off-licence. Hopefully it's still in good condition.

Poured into a tulip pint glass. A deep ruby-brown hue with medium carbonation. Yields a large head of creamy beige foam that lasts for a few minutes before subsiding to a patchy surface layer. Slight lacing. Aroma of grainy roasted malt with hints of burnt grain, dried fruit, mild coffee, stewed hops, faint caramel and a twinge of cardboard. Rounded but somewhat subdued.

Tastes of roasted malt with a bitter finish. Notes of dark malt, burnt grain, dried fruit, subtle coffee, a hint of chocolate, stewed hops, faint caramel, ale yeast and a whisper of cardboard. Ever so slightly sweet, followed by a strident, malt-driven bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth, dry and lightly tingly, with spritzy carbonation and decent body. Could stand being a shade creamier on the palate. Mildly astringent, accompanied by an aftertaste of bitter roasted malt, faint coffee and stewed leaves.

A tasty porter, if not outstanding. Looks the part, while the aroma and flavour are dominated by roasted malt and subtle fruitiness. Decent body - could be slightly thicker and less carbonated. Another solid offering from Naylor's; worth sampling if you come across it.

 

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a pint glass. Best before date is january 2012 so it's 2 months out of date.

Pours a dark black colour like oil.

Smell of roasted and burnt malts, some slight hops in there too.

Tastes very nice, hoppy with the burnt malts again. Goes down smoothly with just a yeasty kick at the end.

Overall a lovely porter.

Pours very dark, but with an off white head, which seems to be more due to the gas levels in the beer than proteins.

Reasonable malts in the smell, but slightly overwhelmed by the carbonic bite. The taste is similar, there are plenty of malts in there, but unless you swirl the gas out first they are hard to taste. Similarly, the mouthfeel as standard owes more to Pepsi than porter.

There is a nice beer here but, as with so many bottled beers, the level of carbonation prevents you noticing. The beer needs to be poured into a large glass and swirled to remove most of the carbonation before it can really be enjoyed. Once that is done there is a fairly good, roasty, chocolatey porter here.