Colossal Eight
Port City Brewing

12 oz. bottle. Clear deep amber with a small khaki ring of foam. Smells of toffee and deep bready malts. Light burnt aroma. Tastes of sweet caramel and toffee. Bready malts. Burnt toast behind it. Bitter burnt malt and astringency in the back end. Medium heavy. Poor finish.

 

 

5 oz pour on tap. Pours caramel with an off-white head, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill dopplebock: aroma and flavor are caramel, brown sugar, toffee, and a touch of bitterness. No off flavors but nothing exceptional either.

Draught 8oz snifter at the Brass Tap here in Baltimore. Dark copper colored sipper.

 

The beer is a very good looking clear brown amber color. The smell is a nice caramel note with a cherry sweet and slightly boozy with a slight toffee note. Ditto with the taste but the cherry sweet is a bit more dominant. Light bitterness. Heavy body and a bit syrupy. Good but some might not like it.

About the color of iced tea. Minimal head and aroma. Initial taste is pleasant and seems like it's headed maybe to Porter-world but then quickly thins out and is a bit "tin-ie." It's a decent, ok drinker, but one that ultimately leaves you a tad disappointed. Pairing it up with popcorn made it more enjoyable.

Bottle dated 1/30:
The beer sits in the glass with a stained glass ruby-brown body, more obviously discerned with some backlight. A dirty white head builds fairly well before falling lazily to a creamy collar with some airy medium-size bubbles in the mix.

Nose has a medium dark bread base with a dark cherry or berry jam high note. With a swirl to revive some scents via increased head, I get a bit of a spicy note - with a bit of an woody/earthy cinnamon nature to it.

Taste has a malty opening with a fruity sweetness. The dark cherry from the nose is joined by some more classic dark fruits (fig, prune) up front. There's a little bit of the spice in the middle that acts as a signal to transition to the darker bread notes from the toasted malts. There's a little lingering bite that I can't distinguish as being alcohol heat or the remnants of the spice from the mid-taste which starts to gain a bit of a spearmint aspect to it as I get halfway through the pour.

Even though this is sweet, it's not thick or heavy. It does seem a tad sticky, though, and I wished it was just a tad cleaner in this sense. The buildup of the spice/alcohol ending to each sip leaves my tongue ever so slightly, lazily numb as I sip.

I think this is a very tasty beer, and does seem to check off most of the boxes per the style description on this site that I just checked. I think it might lean just a tad sweet and sticky for me, but it's not really risking being overly sweet, in my opinion - I'd just like a little more of that dark bread coming forth.

Pours a medium brown with crimson highlights, a thin beige head that settles very quickly to a ring and leaves almost no lacing. Smells predominately of lightly roasted malts, some caramel sweetness and a hint of dark fruits. Tastes of lightly roasted malts, caramel, bread, figs and plums. Some sweetness present but not overdone. Light to medium bodied, light carbonation, very easy drinking beer.