Breakfast Porter
Indie Ale House Brewing Company

Creamy khaki head with some rocks; excellent cap retention; heavy ring; bands of sticky lacing; brown with ruby see through; excellent clarity. Sweet caramel malt nose. Mild malt taste; mild bitter roast. Thin watery feel; light body; moderate minus carbonation. Overall, not much aroma or flavor.

April 27 2023

 

500 ml bottle served cold into a Samuel Smith's pint glass. LCBO purchase.

Appearance - Hazy chestnut brown in color with a small finger of light tan head poured. Modest retention.

Smell - A little coffee and some chocolate, other roasted malts when cold. Let's see how this warms. Not much difference as it warms.

Taste - A little coffee and dark chocolate with roasted malts. Subdued flavors. Mildly bitter aftertaste,

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied leaning towards full bodied. Carbonation is reasonably expressive. Finish is quite dry. Creamy texture with no astringent coffee aspect makes this a pleasure to drink.

Overall - Above average stout, the aromas and flavors are pretty muted, and the body seems thinner than it should be initially. These are all minor nitpicks. As it warms, the creaminess fills out and the flavors improve their intensity making for a more satisfying tipple.

 

Murky, deep dark brown body, with a sizzling tan head that manages to hold on for 30 second or so before petering out to nothing at all.
Faint aromas of dark, fruity chocolate, espresso, black forest cake.
Round chocolatey flavour, rich and dark, accompanied by light balancing roast bitterness that lingers through the finish like a clean espresso; feel is creamy and sticky, with a super fine, medium-light carbonation, medium body; finish is semi-dry, just a bit of residual sugar, tasting like maple syrup.

It may not be a looker, but it has some substance, with delicious dark chocolate flavours and a creamy feel, absent of acidity or tart coffee roast notes. Clean and pure.

Pours very dark brown with lots of yeast chunks visible. The chunky espresso head dissipates pretty quickly. Big coffee, dark chocolate and roasted malt notes in the nose. Roasty but also silky smooth taste. Chocolate, cookie dough, coffee beans, vanilla. The mouthfeel is full bodied with light, creamy carbonation. The finish is medium bitter with lemony hops and roasty malts lingering for a while.

A very nice Oatmeal Stout/Porter. Complex and balanced with lots of chewy malts. Very well executed.

Got this one from hopsolutely this past summer. Thanks, guys!

From a 500ml bottle into a snifter

APPEARANCE: A clear, dark brown pour yields a 2+ finger, looser, foamy, light brown head with great retention. Body is a transparent dark brown, almost black, with no carbonation evident. Head slowly fades to a full, splotchy wisp and clings to the glass. A splotchy wisp remains leaving touches of lacing. A touch light and foamy for the style.

SMELL: Black malts, coffee notes and some leather. Touches of tobacco too. Medium strength.

TASTE: Leather, black malts, and some light coffee flavors at the swallow. A bolder finish of roasted grains, leather, milk chocolate, coffee flavors and hints of tobacco linger on the palate.

PALATE: Medium-lighter body with higher levels of carbonation for the style. A bit foamy, semi-creamy, goes down okay and finishes a bit mouth-coating.

OVERALL: This is half-decent. There’s quite a heavy leather character here, and it’s a bit too foamy to really be enjoyable. Not much of this is breakfast-like either. This is more or less a regular porter with a bit too much carbonation. Thanks again, hopsolutely.

Rich malty body is not too sweet, not too bitter. Notes of coffee and chocolate work well to keep the creamy smooth beer easy to drink. Big abv, be warned, it catches up and drinks like a 4% beer. Body is what makes this beer. thick and smooth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you're hungry for a big breakfast! Indie Ale House Breakfast Porter looks filling enough to serve two. Something like dark chocolate and espresso rolled into one (then coated with ash). Maybe nevermind starting the day - this seems more appropriate for ending it with. The liquid appears rich enough to serve as dessert!

Coffee is laced throughout the beer - from aroma to taste to lightly astringent mouthfeel - and has a roasty, nutty, even lightly smoky malt base to complement it. All that java goodness that's on feature for the tongue is also showcased for the nose, even with an extra little bit of fudge-y chocolate for good measure.

It's hard to top what the bouquet offers so the palate doesn't - it merely provides more of the same. There's tiramisu, dark chocolate cake, strong coffee and subtle hints of black licorice. This not-so-fresh sample evinces the odd hint of clove and bruised purple fruit - yeast by-products resulting from age - that surprisingly suit the overall profile.

As mentioned, for me (a non coffee drinker) the texture borders astringent, especially with roasted malt factored in. There's not a drop of cream to go with all this coffee. (The 7.2% alcohol doesn't help things.) The depth of flavour makes overlooking that mouthfeel easy, although, compared with big hitters from the US, this Breakfast Porter is merely good, not great.

That's the thing with Indie Ale House: they don't have the highest ceiling but they've got an impressively high floor. The chances of being blown away aren't incredibly likely but the odds of being disappointed are even less so. They're almost nil. I've yet to try an underwhelming beer and that's mathematically remarkable given how many recipes they churn out.