Harwood Brown Porter
Beer Here

Thoroughly enjoyed from the 22 oz bottle in a snifter. This delicious porter pours a deep and muddeled blackish brown with a fantastic head of brown foam that settles to a thick ring, thick layer, and excellent frothy lacing. Nose of cocoa, raisin bread, strong booze, and light coffee. Flavors exceed the nose with pronounced coffee and dark bakers cocoa on the front and sides, raisins and candy sugar notes flow middle to back with bread crust and and finishes sweet with a light char note. Excellent. Nice mouth feel, smooth, full, and coating, with a robust roasted malt aftertaste. Excellent. One of the best I have had of the style with a touch of Belgian-Esq flair. Fantastic.

Cheers

Thanks BigMP for gifting me the bottle, appreciated as usual.

A- 500ml bottle fits snuggly in my snifter with a two finger, medium brown cap atop the black body. Great head retention displayed by the thick and frothy crown. Lacing forms rings that are perfectly spaced upon each sip and quite thick.

S- Major notes of the black and brown beer elements with strong aromas of toasted nuts, cocoa powder, toffee and a bit of roast. Spiced raisins, medium caramelized barley sugars, earthy hops and coffee hints.

T- Similar to the nose but the perceived bitterness here brings the nuttiness out to the forefront and exposes a bit more of the hops. A darker cocoa feel, semisweet toffee, medium Crystal grains, spiced raisin dark fruits, English yeast notes, coffee and slight oxidation. Toasty brown maltiness throughout. Slightly burnt malts.

MF- Moderately thick overall consistency and a medium-high level of carbonation. Substantial on the palate with a creamy, slightly chewy, puffy texture. Ends with a bitterness that has a hoppy and roasty feel.

Plenty of porter, plenty of English and plenty of malty complexities. The flavor profile is a gradient between toasted and roasted and it seems like each sip exposes a new flavor especially as it starts warming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

500ml bottle poured into pint glass 31/10/13 very spooky night for a brew

A very dark brown with a deep cola edge, two fingers of mocha foam has decent retention and leaves plenty of random lace deep down the glass

S coco powder, nutty toffee, chocolate milk, still has some leafy hops in there, a hint of coffee, booze and raisin, smells like a strong porter

T taste matches the smell quite well, some fruity notes and the coffees a little stronger, just a faint hint of char and smoke, no complaints here

M not as thick as the color would let you believe but still has lots of body and the bubbles cream it up further helping its cause, a little slick and dark roast lingers

O solid from start to finish, well hidden booze for 8% and I nearly drank the whole bottle at this point and I've been typing at a steady pace

not cheap at 9$ for a half liter but I have no regrets buying the bottle at all. well suited for this chilly evening and I could easily down another bottle or two without getting board but I'm sure I 'd end up tipsy

Pours very dark brown with a large, lasting head.
Nose shows chocolate malt, cocoa, nutty and bready malt.
Similar flavours, more chocolate and nutty malt but with the addition of some spicy and earthy hops.
Carbonation seems a little excessive...

A: Pours a dark brown with a fair amount of tan head. A fair amount retains, leaving good lacing.

S: Malty, nutty, and hoppy.

T: Lightly sweet, becoming thicker and hoppier through the finish.

M: Medium body, medium carbonation.

Overall, pretty good; hoppy, malty, and strong.

500ml bottle. An ode to the porters made in London during the 1700s, and by Ralph Harwood, specifically, who was a popular brewer, and controversially credited with inventing the style. And, I presume, the hearty fella depicted on the label.

This beer pours a clear (I think) very, very dark brown colour, with miniscule cola highlights, and three fingers of puffy, frothy, and cushiony pale beige head, which leaves some nice random webbed lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of nutty, grainy roasted caramel malt, bittersweet milk chocolate, fresh-ground coffee, and earthy, somewhat vegetal green hops. The taste is roasted, slightly bitter caramel malt, an oily nuttiness, flaky dark chocolate, some mildly sour lactic notes, earthy, weedy hops, and a soft booze warming, one rather innocuous in its astringency.

The bubbles are fairly sublimated, and lightly frothy at best, the body a decent medium weight, generally smooth, and even a tad creamy. It finishes on the sweet side, the toasted malt, chocolate, and latent milk sugars too much a match for anything hoppy at this point.

A pretty enjoyable rendition of the blended, sour dark beers of 18th century England. I suppose that the lactic sourness here could be lot more pronounced, but that's just academic pedantry. Let's talk instead about that elevated ABV - wow, hardly a tic of alcohol is appreciable throughout - could the brewers of old do that?