Chilly Water
Trinity Brewing Company

Eh.
Not good.

Looks good enough. Decent pour, ok head.

Taste is just not good. Porter is usually a style that I enjoy, but this is just not enjoyable.

 

Pours a foamy 1 finger bubbly brown head with moderate retention, a bit of lacing, decent legs, basically jet black color

Nose is bad, definite infection, cherry, sour cherry, general fruity aromas, buttered popcorn diacetyl, sour acidic funk, yeast, ash, just bad

Taste is also infected, sour funky yeasty mess, alcohol, diacetyl, a little butyric acid baby vomit thing, there are hints of chocolate and roasty malt, but otherwise horrible infection

Mouth is slimy and boozy, higher foamy carb

Overall horrible, not even a savable infection, I can't get more than a couple sips. Really really sad I spent a fair amount of money on this, and it was deep in CT so I can't go back to get my money back. There's no way this brewery didn't know that it was infected when they bottled it, so either they are horribly incompetent, or giant douches, but either way I'm never buying a beer from this place again!

On tap. Tan head. Little lace. Dark brown color.

This has to be infected. Has a slight sour cherry twang to it. No bourbon, no oak, no vanilla. Doesn’t taste like a Baltic. Terrible. Couldn’t finish 5 oz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look: Very dark black and pours pretty thick. Low on carbonation. Decent foam ring that hangs around.

Smell: Dark fruit that has ripened / soured. Charred oak, coffee, and hints of chocolate. Pretty subdued though.

Taste: Slight bitterness at first. A slightly sour flavor comes forward. I get some Bourbon, but not over powering. Nice smokey flavor from dark roasted grains and charred wood from a barrel. Has a rich and nutty flavor (almost like a bit of peanut butter).

Feel: Pretty flat - Low-Medium bodied.

Overall: A decent brew from Trinity. I've had some much better ones and they are more widely known for sours/saisons. But this is a decent drinking beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

375ml, red wax capped bottle. Yay! Not a sour, session ale, or saison! Am I actually looking forward to fall and winter? Maybe I am, maybe I am.

This beer pours a pretty solid black, with faint orange cola basal edges, and two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly brown head, which leaves some decent roiling wavecrest lace around the glass as it quickly subsides.

It smells of bittersweet chocolate, gritty roasted caramel malt, a complex sweet nuttiness, vanilla-forward Bourbon barrel wood, further free-agent ash, faint black coffee, and perhaps a notion of citrusy and piney hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, medium cocoa powder, cafe-au-lait, more delicately indulgent nuts, an emerging black orchard fruitiness, ethereal vanillan whiskey barrel staves, some hard to pin down earthy spice, and a weak, but welcome all the same, grassy and citrusy hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite active in its palate tingling and otherwise supportive frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and more or less smooth, just a bit of char taking a chink out of the armor here. It finishes off-dry, as the now almost sour coffee-laced milky character starts to compete with the lingering chocolate and caramel notes.

Overall, this is one of the better iterations of the style that I have come across, nice and robust, and easy to drink. I wouldn't go and put it up against the LTM Grande Cuvée Porter Baltique (mostly due to home field advantage), but Chilly Water is a damned fine brew, with a tongue in cheek moniker that I am just now starting to appreciate.

A - Pitch black pour , very thick toffee, creamy colored thick lacing ring.

S - Cocoa, oak, delicate bourbon aroma.

T - Light char, delicate bourbon, some chocolate, and cream.

M - Medium body, silky smooth, creamy mouthfeel. Very dry.

O - Glad to have tried it, wouldn't go for it again.