Tent Pole Whiskey Porter
Bonfire Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

Unique bottle label data: "BOTTLED ON THIS DATE 11.18.14"

Deep, dark brown, nearly black body with an extremely thick, dense, and creamy head; thick splotches of foam clinging to the glass. Smokey wood smell; chocolate; coffee grounds. Milk chocolate and vanilla taste notes with a well-balanced hop bitterness; very faint hint of bourbon sting at the end of the finish. Heavy body though leaning towards the light side of things; velvety smooth finish.

An all-around fine, tasty, easy drinking porter. It's a tad light in the body, but the overall chocolate and vanilla flavors really shine and make for a fine drinking experience. There is a full, woody character to things which I'd attribute to the whiskey barrels plus the barest hint of whiskey at the finish. This all winds up making for a decent depth and complexity in the flavors. I may pickup another bottle and let this one age a bit...

Very clean but full porter. This batch was oak-aged, which certainly didn't hurt it. Gave it a slightly woody, pleasantly unusual aftertaste.

i have to vehemently disagree with the other reviewer here. i think this is well done, very well done, and its success is its subtlety. dark brown in color with a red glow when held to radiant light. tall and frothy tan head, gorgeous. the nose is pretty minimal, i will agree there. an earthy roasted quality to it, malt driven for sure, and the vanilla is way more subdued than it is in the regular tentpole, which i thought was about right on that front. the whiskey just hints here, but is way back, which with the vanilla is fine. the flavor starts grain forward, coffee notes and other bitterness, but transitions smoothly into a lovely vanilla hot chocolate vibe, while the barrel only rounds it out. i find that so many small breweries in colorado way over do the barrel portion, rendering the base beer irrelevant to spirit influence. this is not like the others in that way, it stays mellow, and accentuates and highlights various features of tentpole, without ever taking it over. thats the genius here. that said, the beer is maybe a touch under flavored for the style and could limey stand more carbonation. but its 7% abv, it doesn't need hersheys syrup viscosity, its not necessary, and would detract rather than help i think. not my favorite barrel aged porter, not even close, but far from a below average brew as has been suggested. definitely worth trying.

 

A - Very dark with a good couple fingers of head after a hard pour into a New Belgium tulip glass. A nice tan color that after a few minutes settles to a nice coating with hints of thick lacing on the sides.

S - Coffee, hints of vanilla, and even less of a hint of whiskey.

T - Coffee and chocolate comes forward with first taste. After the glass if almost done, I still am having a hard time getting any whiskey notes. Also as the beer disappears from my glass an almost metallic note starts to come with the aftertaste that seems to want to linger in my throat. Sometimes it seemed almost a bit sour like but then that word just didn't seem to fit.. I took a moment to look at review of its base beer, Tent Pole Vanilla Porter. One reviewer talks about "The aftertaste breathes of roasted coffee beans, soured acidity, coiny metallic..." and then states later on" The coffee, however, was definitely well presented, with earthiness and metallic inclusions that went on for days." so I wonder if this is how coffee is to some people. I like coffee beers but I prefer the more flavored, light roast and am not a big coffee drinker. I will have to keep this in mind for looking at this beer.

M - Here I have to agree with another reviewer's observations. He/she stated "but seems a little thin in body for all the flavors going on, and the carbonation is definitely a little underdone". I really can't add to that. It is all that.

O - This is the first time I have had anything from Bonfire. I was getting another brew hidden in a manager's office when my eye saw the words "Whiskey Porter". The bottle says it was bottled on Feb 18 and today is the 26th. It also says it won a bronze medal at the All Colorado Beer Fest. Yet when I went to their website, I found no mention of this particular beer. The biggest disappointment is the whiskey aging. I could not pick up any outside of a hint in the scent. As soon as the first few sips were down, I felt let down. As a porter or even a coffee porter it has good merits. But after tasting it, the only thing that tells me it was whiskey aged is their label. And that is the worst thing you can do to me, in my book.