Woody Mountain Porter
Mogollon Brewing Company

Sampled at 1702, Tucson, November 2011
The beer arrives from the tap with a ½-finger thick, lightly browned, dark tan colored head. The beer is a concentrated brown / amber color that shows a clear, slightly lighter version of the same when held up to the light. The aroma has a nice smokiness to it that adds a savory almost meaty quality to the nose. The smoke is easily the most dominant note here and when the beer is cold I am having a hard time smelling anything else. An underlying toasted, brown grain character comes out a bit more as the beer warms up.

The beer has a soft prickly carbonation to it up front, but this doesn’t keep the body from have a nice, viscous feeling richness to it that just lingers on the palate. The finish has a sort of bitterness to it that is contributed by some roast character. The roast contributes a soft, supporting, toasted grain character to this beer that accentuates the dominant smoky character. The smoke character is quite smooth and well integrated, but it is easily the most dominant flavor in this beer. There is an underlying caramelized malt character here that seems to boost the balanced smokiness and savory character of this beer more than anything, but it does suggest at a caramelized sweetness and also some of the toasted, biscuit like malt notes. As the beer warms up more of a malt sweetness starts to become noticeable.

Perhaps a touch simplistic, but it is certainly hitting the spot right now. The smokiness, while dominating, is smooth and savory enough to work quite well with the supporting cast that makes up the rest of this beer’s profile. I could easily drink a few pints of this and be quite content. If you are a sucker for smoke beers then you will like this, if not, then you will likely hate it.

My favorite beer from Mogollon. A buddy and I ordered a pitcher tonight, and the bartender asked if we'd had it before - he said "it can be an acquired taste," and wanted to make sure we knew what we were getting into. It's made with mesquite-smoked barley, and smoke is definitely the predominate characteristic - but it's not so strong that it reminds you of Aecht Schlenkerla or anything like that. Just enough to make it interesting. Behind the smoke/BBQ flavor, there's some of the expected dark chocolate, etc. characteristics. It's definitely more acidic or acrid than most porters, but for me this means it's bitter enough to make it dangerously drinkable, and I could have a decent number before needing to switch to something a little milder. Highly recommended.

I had this at the Mogollan brewery in Flagstaff, AZ. It's listed as a 5.5% ABV porter. It had a very nice roasty smoky barbeque kind of flavor and It was strongly aromatic. Poured a dark red-black color with no head. Smoke/roast was the dominant flavor, overwhelming any coffee or chocolate tones, but it was very drinkable.