Open Pit Porter
Quarry Brewing Company

 

Served on tap in a pint glass

Appearance – The beer is served a deep-deep brown nearly black color with a tiny fizzy foam off white head. The head fades super-fast leaving only a trace of lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the beer is heaviest of a roasted malt smell mixed with a good deal of milk chocolate. Along with these aromas comes some caramel and a bit of vanilla as well as a bit of a coffee.

Taste – The taste begins with a roasted malt flavor with some hints of sweeter milk chocolate upfront. Along with the chocolate comes flavors of vanilla and caramel, with these flavors growing slightly lighter as the taste moves on. With the loss of some of the sweet the chocolate takes on a slightly more bitter flavor with the roasted tastes getting even stronger as the taste moves on further and some decently strong coffee flavors coming to the tongue. In the end, with a bit more roasted malt and some slight bits of grain and earth coming to the tongue, a somewhat drier, but nicely mocha coffee flavor is left to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is on the average to slightly thinner side for a porter with a carbonation level that is on the average side. For the style the feel was alright, but really nothing all that special, making it rather easy drinking and decently highlighting the darker and chocolate flavors rather decently.

Overall – A pretty nice porter with a good sweet, then drier chocolate mocha flavor. Not a bad one to give a try to if you get a chance.

 

 

Poured from a growler into a shaker. An average pour brings about 3/4 inch of a creamy tan head. This sticks around for a good while. The beer is a very dark brown that does not admit a normal household light.

This beer has a unique smell and taste, like many if not all of Quarry's darker beers- sort of a funky milk parlor taste, combined with a distinct spicy banana essence that must surely stem from a unique strain of yeast- I've noticed this flavor since the brewery opened, and have experienced it only perhaps with certain Belgian ales (i.e. some brett yeast may be involved). This rather unique taste can be off-putting at first, but one gets a taste for it pretty quickly. They made a brown ale last winter that was a luscious treat, and this porter is a fair substitute, though perhaps not quite as good.

Besides the aforementioned yeasty aromas/flavors, there are some definite tones of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and dark bread, with a bit of hop tanginess that is most pronounced in the aftertaste. The coffee flavors come through in the aftertaste as well, with a bit of 2-hour-old coffee bitterness and tang. Also, some dark fruit flavors, plum and/or dark cherries.

This is quite a distinctive and unique brew by a small town brewery with a very limited distribution. Harken ye who hail from far lands- If you ever go to Butte, Montana (hints- St. Patty's, July 3-4 fireworks madness, Evil Knievel Days, Folk Fest, New Year's Eve fireworks madness) yous better stop by and check it out, Bud. The town also has a distillery with a tasting room.

Third pint (and final under Montana's archaic laws) after two excellent Gneiss IPA's (abv = 6.8%, IBU = 82). Head was appropriate half inch and nicely laced. Color was lovely- deep brown, almost to black. Aroma was complex malt with roasty chocolate predominate. Taste carried it through with additional malt complexity. Light mouth feel with deep finish. Excellent porter.

Appearance- Pours with a nice dark caramel head, black and dark brown only visible when viewed to the light

Smell- sweet toasted dark malts, fruits of dark, ripe plum, overtones of chocolate

Taste- roasted bitterness on the front mellowing out with robust chocolatey middle, finish with fast fading toast and hops

Mouthfeel- full bodied, smooth character

Overall- I've tasted a good number of brews from Quarry without much excitement, this porter definitely is one of their stars on the map

I wonder if ther previous reviewer had a bad tap or a bad batch; that happens. Open Pit Porter is one of my favorite all-time beers, and since Quarry deosn't bottle, I have to go to the source, which is about 1200 miles from my home.

It does have a very light head for a porter, but it is still creamy and chocolatey in the mouthe. The head lingers, and it is about 1 finger. It is amazingly clean finishing for the style, and other that the Stout seasonal at Quarry, it might be one of the best beers i have ever had. Clean, chocolate, balanced, smooth.

I had this on tap at Metals in Butte. It is almost black with no head whatsoever. Mildly malty aroma with a little earthy funk. The flavor is pretty bad really. Very astringent with a sour aftertertaste. The mouthfeel is thin and overcarbonated. Overall, this is one of the worst "craft brews" i have ever been served. It tastes like bad homebrew that I would dump. I did not even drink half of my pint. I had a sip of their Galena Gold, and it was better but still nothing to write home about.