Cian's Porter (Pro-Am)
Thunder Canyon Brewery

Sample August 2011
The beer arrives from the tap with a dark brown, ¼-finger thick, head. The beer is a pitch black color that shows a hint of clear brown around the edges. The smells of deeply toasted and even roasted whole grain up front with softer backing notes of dark chocolate, touches of dry coffee liquor, a fair amount of dry French roast coffee notes. Really the nose is quite dominated by the roast and dark whole grain character; it is quite appetizing if a bit simplistically focused; I wasn’t expecting any crazy yeast character, but this could have used some of the richer / sweeter dark malt notes as a boost to the complexity.

The beer tastes quite dry as it hits my palate for the first time, I was certainly expecting more sweet dark malt character, instead it has a wholesome, deeply roasted dry finish. The beer is actually fairly carbonated as it fizzes up a bit as it rolls across the tongue; the carbonation accentuates the dry roasted finish, but there is actually a touch of malt “sweetness” to this beer. It isn’t sweet at all, there is just a suggestion of some fuller malt character underneath the dominant roast character. Towards the finish a dark chocolate note mixes with a touch of brown bread malt character just before the dry, somewhat bitter, but not acrid, burnt / roast character completely dries out the finish. There is a certain roasted molasses note to this beer, it melds with with the dark chocolate notes and is again not really sweet. The body of this is fairly light, some of this is the carbonation, but it still is a quite quaffable beer even after I get rid of the excess carbonation.

Purely from a stylistic standpoint this seems way to roasted to be a Porter, but given the murky line between Porter and Stout that is certainly a minor quibble. If I had to classify this I would say it is a big brother to a dry, Irish type of Stout. Guinness on steroids perhaps, and it is quite appetizing with its dry, roasted finish. Despite expecting something completely different out of this beer, I am really enjoying it. The carbonation is perhaps a touch too fizzy, I have a feeling this would do really well on the cask; getting rid of some of the excess carbonation brings out a lot more of a richness, sort of bready, sort of dark toasted malt character, though it still isn’t sweet; it actually becomes more balanced without the excess carbonation and I am enjoying it more.