Brown Crik Porter
Kootenai River Brewing Company & Restaurant

16oz pint at the brewery overlooking the eponymous river (and a parking lot, of course).

This beer appears a clear, very dark brown colour, with one skinny finger of wispy and bubbly beige head, which leaves a minor amount of spotty lace around the glass as things slowly recede.

It smells of bready caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, dry coffee beans, ethereal black licorice, a twinge of lactic sourness, and tame citrusy, leafy, and piney hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, grainy caramel malt, milk chocolate, a weird Euro-esque toffee character, Tootsie rolls, and earthy, generic citrusy, and wet leafy hops.

The carbonation is quite understated in its weak and barely supportive frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and well smooth, with a wee creaminess poking it's head out as the ambient temperature warms. It finishes off-dry, the varied caramel/toffee, cocoa, and milky coffee droning out any hops with lingering aspirations.

A decent enough 'summery' porter, though wouldn't a brown creek be more indicative of springtime? Anyways, tasty, and light-seeming, without sacrificing the usual porter metrics, even if the Pacific NW hops kind of dial it in as far as Americanizing this one goes.