Nashoba's Special Reserve Porter
Nashoba Valley Brewery

 

Beige, large bubbled head that dissipates like soda pop. Within 30 seconds, there are no bubbles at all. And no lace. Deep, dark brown where no light shines through.

Smells of semisweet chocolate and chalk. I detect a faint aroma of burnt malt as well.

The flavor is darker than the smell, less sweet. Lots of carbonation which gives the beer a thin feel. The taste is mildly sour but leaves a short aftertaste.

 

 

Pours an almost non-existant fizzy head that disappears even quicker, over dark root beer brown colored beer.

Nose has malts, brown sugar and hints of molasses, a bit of darker crystal malts, a touch of smoke, and hint of chocolate. There is also a very light creamy porter, and hints of herbal earthy hops.

Taste has dark malts again, slightly syrupy, some toasty brown malts, hints of smoke, and dark crystal malts, slightly nutty malts as well, slight woody esters and saw dust like flavors (not real wood just weird woody flavors). Some light bitterness, with hints of herbal and earthy hops, it gets slightly briny and salty with from the smoked and dark malts. Finishes mostly dry, hints of smoked and darker malts, no real syrupy flavors, fairly bitter finish as well, with some earthy hops lingering.

Mouth is med bodied, lower but decent enough carb.

Overall not bad, much better than I expected from a Nashoba beer. Decent malts, light smoke, a bit briny and salty, decent bitterness with some hops, just a touch of woody like esters. No real off flavors or syrupy extract flavors.

Thanks to jcwattsrugger for this!

Pours black with a thin, somewhat fizzy, brown head that eventually disappears.

The smell is of roast, light ash with toffee, dark bread, a splash of coffee and an anise-like earthiness.

The taste is of anise and herbal spiciness with molasses and toffee. I liked the initial taste more because a certain sourness interferes as it progresses. It has an herbal/earthy hop touch with a slight astringency.

The feel is not lively. Carbonation doesn't doesn't hold up. Not thin, but could use more silkiness/creaminess.

It's not a bad porter. It has a nice roast touch, a decent maltiness with a gentle hop bite, but there is a certain sourness(?) to it that doesn't help it's character. Not "thrilling", but a decent, earthy, porter.

Pours dark brown and maroon with a deep tan head. Scattered but farily heavy lace on the glass.
Aroma of sweet caramel, some chocolate cream and just a hint of roasted nuts.
Flavor had a charcoal and roasted quality with some subtle chocolate and coffee flavors and just enough of a resiny hop bite to ensure you were drinking a Porter.
Mouthfeel was well-balanced and probably medium-bodied. Nice transitions between roast, malt and bittering.
Drinkability was above average and appropriate for style. Maybe a tad on the light side for style but overall decent beer.
Thanks to PPoitras for the sample.

A dark brown pretty much black ale with no head at all. The aroma had some malty sweetness at first suffered from having to share your nose with a almost sour winey background. The taste starts out with a decent malty note with some chocolaty undertones. But that winey sour thing drifts around at the back of you throat.

Poured black with a thick tan head. Decent lacing.

The smell was malty sweet, maybe a little creamy.

The flavor, off the bat, was burnt wood and nutty. There are chocolate and coffee flavors swirling about with a little hop bite. All in all a very well-balanced porter.

Mouthfeel was a little thick, but not heavy with a little carbonation and hop bite.

A nice drinkable porter.