Chai Tea Porter
Throwback Brewery

Can to becher pint glass.
The appearance was a dark red to almost brown color with a small eggshell white foamy head sliding off at a decent pace. Some messy lace.
The aroma had some cardamom, mild milk chocolate, light vanilla and a touch of coffee. Super light roast on the back end.
The flavor mildly led with that cardamom spicy earthiness rolling into subtle sweet to roasty tones of coffee and chocolate nibs. Mild aftertaste of cardamom spice, roastiness, coffee and cocoa powder.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair sessionable sort of character about it. Good carbonation and ABV. Smooth herbal to cardamom spicy finish with a touch of dry cocoa powder.
Overall, nice idea for a porter. I'd have again.

Poured on draft into a pint glass. Pours a very dark mahogany with a finger plus head and leaves thin streaks of lace behind.

Smell is peppery, vanilla, cocoa, and coffee.

Taste follows some spice in the finish, vanilla, cocoa, coffee, and toffee.

Mouthfeel is average, plenty of life, dry for sure, and drinks much larger than 5%.

Overall I did this Porter, great on a cool evening and you can drink plenty because of the ABV.

 

 

 

I don't buy a lot of beer from Throwback because they don't distribute to MA at all, but I've definitely been a fan of several of their beers that I have ended up grabbing when in NH. This is, as the name would lead one to believe, an American-style porter made with Chai tea sourced from White Heron Tea in Portsmouth, NH. The pour on this is absolutely beautiful with a huge light-mocha head sitting atop a beautifully dark, impenetrably black body. This is a DARK beer! Lacing as the head dissipates is very nice and rather consistent; probably better than most in this style, especially for one that isn't hop-forward. The nose is redolent with vanilla, cardamom and clove with a light cinnamon backing. Behind that, darker malts provide a coffee-like backbone typical of a porter as dark as this.

The spicing is very obvious and apparent in the nose, but on the tongue, the beer falls a little flatter. Though the flavors pop more as it comes to room temperature, the base beer is not as noticeable as it should be, and the chai aspects seem to drive the beer. It's not the worst thing to happen to a beer, especially one that is apparent about the adjunct flavorings involved, but coupled with a rather thin mouthfeel, it's a bit of a let-down. The low-ish ABV helps make it very drinkable even in spite of the sorta-watery body.

From a 32oz growler poured a few days ago.

Pours a dark brown almost black color, minimal head and no lacing on the glass.

Smell has a huge chai aroma, tons of natural spicing hit the nose, pairs well with the dark roasted malt for a spicy toasty aroma.

Taste is not as strong in chai flavor as it was in the aroma aspect, but still very present and adds a nice dimension to a standard roast malt porter backing, the spicing hit the sides of the mouth the greatest, carbonation is on the low side with a decent body presence, a bit slick and buttery on the tongue