Coffee Porter
Anchor Brewing Company

 

Bottle poured into a Mountain Rambler Brewing Co pint glass

A: Pours dark brown with a frothy cocoa brown head that settles to a firm layer and laces nicely.

S: Roasty, a little char, earthy, coffee, faint dark chocolate, slight spicy herbal notes, dare I say a little banana kinda thing going on, and some toffee sweetness.

T: Roasted malt, slight char, fair coffee presence, herbal, earthy, a touch of spice, dark chocolate and vanilla hiding in there, faint dark fruit, and a little toffee sweetness.

M: Medium body, moderate carbonation, slightly creamy.

O: This bottle accidentally got packed into a cellar box and hidden a way for a little over 2 years. Wasn't expecting much, given that it's only 6.7%, but it's actually survived pretty well. First couple sips felt a little thin, but as it warmed it somehow managed to develop a little creaminess. Very solid brew, probably even better fresh. I'll keep my eyes open for a fresh batch should they decide to brew it again.

This pours a hearty black brown with a resplendent creamy cap of foam. Wonderful roasty aroma and smooth taste. What strikes me is how well it all comes together. Great mouthfeel, smooth sipper, delicious.

 

 

 

Decanted from a 12 oz (355 ml) bottle into a conical pint glass; no production date, but coded 7DT = December 20, 2017.
A: Pours a nearly black color with walnut highlights leaving a two inch, fluffy, light brown head, limited retention, and moderate rings of somewhat soapy lacing.
S: Aromas of coffee/cappuccino, sarsaparilla, and molasses. An increasing mineral and chocolate note.
T: Sweet. Flavors mirror the nose, albeit with coffee and lactose very much out front. Cumin bitterness up front and persistent preventing the melange from becoming cloying.
M: Full bodied with excellent persistence of effervescence. Peppery tingling.
O: An enjoyable, coffee porter. Flavors nicely balanced with solid hoppy bitterness. A nice choice to complement Thanksgiving fare.

 

Beautiful dark brown almost black body with garnet highlights. A thick,smooth, and foamy dark tan head leaves exceptional lacing.

Sweet, brown sugar, toasted bread and banana esters lead the aroma with a faint emphasis on coffee in the background. Not what I was expecting, but still very inviting.

Flavor follows with a very banana and yeast forward flavor dominance. Sugared toast leads into a mild coffee finish.

Smooth and creamy. Soft, balanced just favoring sweet. A mild carbonation makes this sky and easy to drink,but still manages to demand time taking on the role of a desert beer more than a morning wake-up.

A decent coffee Porter. I think I actually prefer the original Porter from Anchor to this, but it is an excellent idea if they dial it in a bit more. Cheers.

 

 

 

12oz bottle into snifter.

A: Pours a deep, rich, coffee brown with a couple inches of fluffy dark ruddy brown head that slowly collapsed into a thin wispy film. A network of patchy, sticky, lace was left down the glass.
S: Roast dominates both from the base porter and the coffee. Coffee is earthy and woody and mixes well with scents of chocolate and roast. Subtle kiss of sweetness.
T: Follows the nose with rich roasted notes of coffee, semi-sweet/semi-bitter chocolate, and an all-around creamy quality, with what tastes like lactose sugar. Finish a has an assertive yet pleasant bitterness that lingers into the aftertaste.
M: Medium body, creamy and rich mouthfeel, smooth soft carbonation. Pleasant creamy sugary sweetness balances the bitterness and the roast.
O: A nice take on the original. Coffee flavors work well in an otherwise world class porter.

A: poured from a 12 oz bottle into a pint glass, dark brown with a large tan head that lingers leaving good lacing, clear

S: coffee, chocolate, bready malt, brown sugar

T: roasty malt, coffee, dark bitter chocolate

M: thinner but creamy

O: more muted flavors that are less aggressive than many more recent American porters

god tasting coffee porter - had better - I like some of their other beers better

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Hopt. In Ikea's pint glass. Playing Game of Thrones. Strong coffee notes, very pleasant, specially in nose. Only downside is the body, which at times feels a bit low, but great exp in general

 

Poured deep dark black with a nice caramel head that left very little lacing.

Aroma is rich coffee and roasted malts. Very slight earthy and dark fruitiness at the very end.

Taste has a lot more going on - hoppy, floral, and earthy notes jump out from the coffee, smooth & toasty malts deliver the finish.

Mouthfeel is smooth, not heavy like a porter trying to be a stout, but still medium and rich.

Overall, a really good porter at an amazing value for the price. More complex than expected, not just about the coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A recent substitute teaching position took me up to Manheim Township & on the return home, I stopped in at The Beer & Beverage Shoppe for a look-see. It was a reminder that I really should stop in there more often as they had all sorts of singles for which I was desirous. This was one of them. I dedicate this review to the late Jack Fleiner of San Francisco's Bernal Heights area. Jack, along with my uncle Steve & I constituted The Vine & Anchor Society, a group of home winemakers, tipplers & sailors.

From the bottle: "Our historic, art deco building on San Francisco's Potrero Hill was a coffee roastery before it was our brewery. So it's high time that it became that it became the birthplace of Anchor Coffee Porter (tm). We've joked for years that it takes a lot of coffee to make beer. Now, in collaboration with local roaster Four Barrel Coffee, we are doing just that-- literally. We start in the brewhouse with our radically traditional recipe for Anchor Porter, which we've been brewing since 1972. We end up in the cellar, where we add Four Barrel Flash-Chilled Coffee -- developed with Anchor especially for this beer -- during secondary fermentation. The result is a coffee porter of immense richness, intensity, boldness, and smoothness, with deep aromas and mouthfeel of fresh-roasted coffee melded with dark-roasted maltiness."

I Pop!ped the cap, using an opener, as directed. Once this momentous task was accomplished, I began a slow, gentle pour into the awaiting glass. I followed this action with a vigorous in-glass swirl that raised a finger of dense, foamy, deep-brown head with excellent retention that left nice lacing in its wake. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose smelled like my morning cuppa joe - I like my coffee like my women & magic: hot & black. Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, not quite creamy, but close. The taste was really nice - very evocative of coffee, but not as outright bitter as some that I have drank in the past. They really did a nice job in the preparation of this one! It had a mélange of flavors, including dark chocolate, almonds and a light spiciness, somewhere between cinnamon & curry. Wow! Finish was dry, still spicy, with a lingering chocolate & coffee aftertaste. This is one that is worth seeking out/making a trade!

Very happy to see this variant of Anchor's regular porter (well crafted on its own), thoughtfully integrating Four Barrel's coffee - I note the ABV has creeped up for this version - not sure if this is due to a difference in the recipe, the additional time in secondary, or both? Poured from a 12oz bottle into my 10oz nonic:

Lush bistre body supports a lasting desert sand cap, two fingers of soapy tendrils clinging to the sides; superior retention.

Uniform balance of malt and coffee, with the roast levels at parity in the nose. Faint cigarillo, burnt sugar, and grain in the nose. Faintly earthy aromatics emerge as the beer warms, possibly from the hops?

Surprisingly bright on the palate, with floral, herbal, and crisp almost vegetal flavors combining with the roast malt tones. More third-wave contemporary pour-over notes than sweet/earthy traditional coffee notes. Mild bitterness, but no obvious hop character. Clean (characterless?) American yeast. Finishes dry with tart and tannic notes and a delicious low minerality suggesting a precisely chosen water profile.

Medium-light bodied, not quite creamy mouth-feel.

The ingredients are carefully integrated, so this is not a "coffee flavored" beer, on the other hand I wouldn't go so far as to say that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.