Wind and Rain
Captured By Porches Brewing Company

Bottle at Beer Mongers. Dark amber , small bubbly head. Rich, toasty malt aroma. Taste too is pure malty goodness. Brown bread, caramel. Right on target.

Hazy deep gold with three fingers of cream color head. Rings of lace form as the head drops.
Smell is some toffee coffee roasted malts.
Taste is roasted malt some char in fact a touch of hop bitterness.
Mouthfeel is medium with good carbonation. Finish is dry and mildly bitter.
Overall a bold and tasty ESB. Bottled on Feb. 20, 2020.

500ml bottle

Pours almost two fingers of tan head into my nitro glass. Head almost looks like a cappuccino, looks yummy. Body is very dark for an ESB, almost a muddy brown, visibility is basically zero. While the body is darker than most would anticipate, I don't care toooo much about style guidelines, and this style in particular is very broad. The head retention was ok, and the head itself was nice, looks good so far.

The nose is very nice. Caramel, light bread notes, burnt toast is pretty noticeable, perhaps some toffee as well. British hop aroma is light, but definitely present. It smells like a british beer, it's a good clone of the style. While some call this style balanced, I've never felt that way, this beer is no different on the nose. While there is some hop presence, and the malt profile seems to have good attenuation, it's definitely a malt forward beer. Nice nose overall, the roasty burnt flavor might be a little much for the lighter supporting characters, but it smells nice overall.

Flavor is even more on the burnt side, a little too much. Yeah, it just doesn't work that well, and overpowers the palate. Bitterness hits around the middle, to add to the overly abrasive taste, and lingers towards the finish. I don't think I can call this all that malty because there aren't really any classic malt flavors, but I do believe that's where the burnt flavor is coming from. It's definitely not sweet. So maybe I was wrong, and it is more balanced than I thought, but calling it balanced would be a compliment, and not very accurate. Overall, it's not undrinkable, but I'm not a big fan. Could be the style, but I recall having better offerings.

Carbonation is very light, as is the body. As mentioned, bitterness hits and lingers a little bit; good attenuation, not very sweet at all. Not an extremely refreshing mouthfeel, but it's accurate for the style.

The drinkability is ok I suppose. I don't love the flavor, but it's light, and it's beer.

The appearance turned out, eh, ok. I enjoyed the beginning, but it kinda petered out. No real lacing at all.

Overall, it's fine. The flavors are smoothing out, but it's still too abrasive between the bitterness and burnt malt, with not enough supporting hop or malt flavors.