Dundee Porter
Golden Valley Brewery and Pub

Look: Jet black on the pour and quickly forms a light brown head that billows up and settles to a film, leaving good lacing behind
Aroma: Roast, freshly baked brown bread, baker’s chocolate, wafts of dark fruit, toasted bread, and light earthiness
Taste: Bread, toast, and dark chocolate come together strongly up front as roast follows close behind and joins in. Earthiness and mild dark fruit notes make a quick appearance before chocolate, roast, and bread return for the close
Mouthfeel: Full, smooth, medium-high carbonation, and smooth and soft but with a light robustness on the finish
Overall: This is awesome stuff. I haven’t had this beer in years, which is s shame, so pumped to revisit it and remind myself of how good it is. A tasty and well-made robust porter that has good depth and is way too easy to drink. Recommended

On draft at the brewpub

Black in color, white head. Dark chocolate in the aroma but a little roasty too. Taste is similar, a little sweetness. Medium bodied, fairly smooth feel.

Sold on draft as Dundee Bypass. A little dry for me but drinkable with no real remarkable notes

 

Caveat: I accidently aged this bottle aged four months before drinking it. Not sure if this one was meant to last that long.
Chocolate root-beer brown, shy finger's worth of tan head.
Nose is nice. Idiosyncratic. Peanut , coconut, maltiness.
Flavor is mild. Malty. Decent. Nothing wrong here. Not special, but very decent. Above average for porters.
Mouthfeel is moderate. Would prefer richer, and slightly less carbonation.
Finish is a little sharp, acidic, musty... not up to the quality of the rest.

 

 

Pours dark brown and sits in the glass almost black. Miniscule head and almost nonexistent lacing. Nothing incredibly special about this beers appearance at first glass.

Aroma is strong cocoa with hints of toasted malt.

First taste was unexpectedly complex for me, though as I made it through the pint it became a very solid, cocoa forward drinkable Porter. Pleasant aftertaste with a hint of hops peeking through.

 

22oz : tulip

Pours black, with a foamy light tan head, average retention, sparse lacing.

Nothing particularly complex, just an inviting, tasty aroma of roasty and cocoa malt character.

More of the same in the taste, though just a bit less pronounced.

A solid, very well done porter.

 

 

Poured from 22oz bomber into a pint glass.

Appearance: deep, dark brown hue with ruby highlights. Head pours a thin layer of creamy tan foam. Good, but the head could be a bit better.

Smell: rich, roasty aroma with a good blend of coffee and chocolate without being too harsh or astringent. Nicely balanced!

Taste: a good combination of the roasty flavors found in the aroma and a lightly sweet character of dark fruits. A hint of bitterness at the end is nice without adding any vegetal hop character. I like it.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a somewhat low level of carbonation. A little creaminess develops toward the end, but in general the texture is wanting.

Overall: a good beer, but a little extra carbonation could do this brew wonders.

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 22oz bottle:

A: Pours a nice dark chocolate and allows a small amount of light through the edges of the glass. Nice one finger, tan, frothy head with a little lace clinging to the glass.

S: Roasted malts with dark chocolate undertones. A little sweet coffee and toffee notes also appear. Sort of a smokey, musty, combination that also blends well.

T: Follows the nose. The roasted malts shine through with coffee and a hint of chocolate filling out the backbone. There is also a bit of a hoppy note at the end that balances out well.

M: Fairly light which surprised me. Nothing clingy or sticky on the tongue. Nice balance with body and carbonation.

D: I likey. Nice and light, good balanced flavors. Enjoyable to drink.

From the other reviews on Golden Valley's Dundee Porter I would think I drank a different beer. I expect a diversity of opinion, but, man, people are really slamming this one! Perhaps Golden Valley has recently reformulated and improved this brew and the older recipe really was as bad as people describe on this site--for the reviewers' sakes, I hope so. I picked up mine in Dec. '10 and drank it a couple weeks ago. Here's what I thought...

Poured out, Golden Valley's porter looks like a standard, craft porter: black body with a light, tan head. After a few minutes in the glass it had left a good amount lacing with a thin iceberg-like foam remnant in the middle of the glass and a foam ring around the outside.

THE SMELL is mainly cocoa powder. Some malt and some hops, but mostly cocoa.

THE FEEL is very smooth and slightly heavy--not thin at all.

THE TASTE, unlike the feel, is not heavy at all. There is a nice heavy malt/sweet milk chocolate flavor at the start and at the finish. The finish is also slightly dry and yeasty. It is not bitter in the least. Dundee Porter's flavors are well-balanced and straightforward. This is all certainly accurate to style, in my opinion.

CONCLUSION: There is nothing creative or daring about Golden Valley's porter (which of course beergeeks tend to frown upon). However its characteristics are quite correct for an American-inspired porter. Given its simplicity, I will say that it is not worth the premium price one has to pay for a 22 oz. bottle. It could fairly garner $3 or $4/bottle, but not the $6 I had to surrender to Whole Foods while in Oregon. Price aside, this is a nice, and very drinkable porter and can hang with many of the 'best' porters that everyone loves on this site.

Thanks again Market of choice for keeping this beer in stock. Drank from a New Belgium pint glass. Pours a dark brown/caramel color. Once in the glass, it's BLACK. Similar to a licorice black. The aroma has a real deep coffee smell to it. Taste is mainly coffee, and a bit of chocolate after taste. I really enjoy coffee flavored beers, and this one is no exception.