Embers S'mores Porter
Payette Brewing

Taster at Payette. Dark brown pour, thin ring of head. Aroma is sweet, light marshmallow, vanilla. Taste is chocolate, dry, vanilla, faint graham crackers.

i like this better than the raspberry edition, way less sweet despite being modeled on a dessert, its not too much, and i think the flavors are well restrained, like this is still a solid porter first before its a flavored beer, at least when its colder. nice deep brown color to this and a short but thick tan head from the can, good carbonation for the style which i like to see. the nose is nice, i get the chocolate ahead of the other elements, but i do get some honey graham cracker character which is neat with the roasty malts all around it, very cohesive and subtly complex, not too much marshmallow and vanilla to me which is good, but also not much smoke, which i was hoping would be here creating a little more of a campfire vibe, its mild at best, not really a defining element of this, but probably better for mass appeal that way. still this has warming wintery coziness to it, rich milk and earthy dark chocolate qualities both, and a big smooth body with just a little residual sugar linger after the swallow. this seems a little more grown up than the raspberry one, which tasted good but was overly fruity and sweet, this is a more mature palate to me. its awesome to see so much new stuff from these guys lately! more winter than summer obviously with this one, but it really is good, and that the whole smore can be appreciated without losing the base beer is cool. well done.

Smoked porter may not be the most accurate descriptor of style...this is not overly smoky, the smoke is just a subtle addition. On-tap in Garden City, served in a pint glass; pours an opaque brown with a quickly receding off-white head that settles into a ring; light sweet campfire smoke notes with underlying vanilla/s'mores; milk chocolate is prevalent, hints of graham cracker and nutmeg; smooth, sweet with a dry finish that is accented with that light smoky character. Overall this is well executed, much better than the Raspberry Vanilla Embers.