All The Golden Tickets
Pipeworks Brewing Co.

 

 

The Golden Ticket was a off-center find, the only time I have seen it at Warehouse Liquors. GT is a nice chocolate roast porter. Exactly what you look for in a dry porter. Roasted, with a dry finish.

IG: @firesidewithphil

16 oz can, 12/23/19, into Prairie Rastal glass. I bought them both at the same place - Mike's in KCMO.

Has a really deep dark slick black looking body with a tall creamy mud colored head of 2 fingers. Sporadic lace left behind as it gradually recedes.

Aroma is a wonderful mix of ashy roasted malts and sweet milk chocolate; some hoppy floral notes, tobacco, and slight caramel pop up as well. I can also smell dusty grist. Just a complex nose all around.

The flavor brings the chocolate and cocoa nibs forward, but a robust ashen malt bill pulls the sweetness back before it gets too wild. What it ends up being is a ridiculously enjoyable balanced profile intertwined with the same hoppy floral notes on the nose and added caramel and lactose sweetness.

Feel is thick and slick, like a stout should be but isn't too thick as to BE a stout...it's just the right, ehm, "robustness" for a robust porter. Nice dry finish, with lingering moderate alcohol heat.

Overall, it's not a stunner at first sip, but this beer actually blows the roof off if you take time to sit back and appreciate its nuances and smooth execution. This is the perfect porter for me. Highly recommended.

Price paid $4 / can
Would buy again : of course

A- Pours from the tallboy into a tulip with a midnight black body and a deep cocoa brown head that has an inviting, thick creamy texture. Good head retention and spotty lacing.

S- Chocolate and roast grains balanced out with medium sweetness for a somewhat desserty aroma. I mean, outright wonderful chocolate aroma with both sweet milk chocolate and nutty, bitter dark chocolate notes. Great balance between sweet and bitter. Dark roast coffee, nuts, toast and slight caramel.

T- Dark chocolate comes through more with a mix of like 80% cocoa bars and semi bitter cocoa powder. The fruitiness of the chocolate comes through and probably a bit of dark fruits from the yeast as well. Roast barley provides dark depth and there are nutty, toffee, medium roast coffee, brown sugar, toast and a touch of caramel. Again, well rounded balance of bold chocolate, dark malts and sweetness.

MF- Smooth and medium bodied Porter. The bubbles feel almost like nitro, silky and at a moderate level.

Fairly unassuming brew with a good name brings great usage of malts and a very, very nice balance between the chocolate, roast grain and coffee flavor spectrum and the sweetness and bitterness.

Matte dark brown/light black, tiny off-white ring. This is everything their quad wasn't: true to style, roasty, strikes the balance of malt weight, and super chocolate forward with a roasted earth backing and hints of toffee. Smells is straight dark chocolate with cocoa. Feel is classical, has a brighter note of sweet but it balanced but out by the finish, good level of roast for a porter. Well worth your time when looking for a porter

Can from Craft Beer Cellar Belmont
Inky black in color with a frothy mocha head that shows great retention. Rich earthy chocolate with bits of roasty licorice and light ash. Light fruitiness and earthy hops. Creamy rich decadent mouthfeel. Desert in a glass.

 

 

16oz can, date stamped 12/23/19. Dark brown body is capped by a tan head that dissipates quickly. Chocolate maltn cocoa nibs, roasted barley, and earthy hops for aroma. Bold bittersweet chocolate flavors, some cocoa nib adds to the chocolatey dominance, toasted and roasted grain, along with some earthy hop bitterness. Fuller body, creamy and smooth, ample carbonation, roast and earthy hops linger on the finish. Very good chocolatey porter!

16oz can. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, light brown head of foam. It smelled of chocolate, toffee and caramel malt. Sweet chocolate, candi sugar, toffee and a mild bitterness.

 

 

Pipeworks' recent flavored beers have pretty much consistently nailed whatever they're attempting, so I was pretty pumped to see a lower ABV offering from them because most of those I just mentioned have been like 11-12% and mega-sweet. I mean, they rule, but I also don't want the diabetes. How ironic, then, that this is a chocolate porter I'm reviewing now, eh? All the Golden Tickets is a 6.5% porter with chocolate malts and cacao nibs. Fun!

Pours an impenetrable, silky black with a nice formation of deep mocha head that retains for a few minutes before sinking down to almost nothing on top of the body of the beer. Weird, but I guess not apropos of a lot of drier porter style dark ales I've had in the past, now that I think about it. They tend to be a bit thinner and less "showy" than stouts in some ways.

The nose is, you guessed it... chocolate! Though, I will say, there's some rye-like spice, caraway, a touch of nuttiness and a good bit of dark-roast coffee bean. Maybe a little bit of vanilla in there, too. Hazelnut? Sure, I can pick that up as well! You get the picture... this beer has a lot going on actually, despite its seemingly singular focus on candy bars. Seems like it's going to be oily and slick from the nose.

Good flavor profile for sure. Obviously, it's chocolate forward, but it's not so much chocolate that the base beer is overshadowed. Quite the opposite, honestly; this drinks like a nice, roasty porter first, and a chocolate beer second, which is probably the best case scenario for this type of thing. I could easily see myself getting overwhelmed and bored if it just tasted like a liquid 65% cacao bar, but the slight nuttiness, little notes of spice, coffee ground-like flavor, and very subtle notes of dark fruit and smoke along with the requisite porter nuttiness keep it all on the up-and-up. I really like this.

The feel is oily, as expected. Kind of on the heavier side of medium with a definite palate-coating effect to it. Moderate carbonation, to-style drying finish with some lingering roast and cacao flavors in there. Slight numbing ethanol even though it only clocks in at 6.5%, but I enjoy the way it interacts with the high-quality flavors on order. I would absolutely recommend this, and will try to get some more before it disappears.