Original Flag Porter 1825
Elgood and Sons Ltd

April 2011: 11.2 fl. oz. bottle, as Original Flag Porter, apparently labeled for export to USA. Brewed by Darwin Brewery. ABV is 5.0%. Bought at The Cheese & Wine Shop, Darlington. Very dark ruby colour, nearly black. Large beige head. Nice aroma of moderately roasted malts and dark chocolate. Smooth and pleasant mouthfeel. The flavour has again notes of moderately roasted malts, mild coffee and dark chocolate, but the beer is not too sweet. Moderate bitterness.

 

 

 

Aroma roasted malt, nuttiness, faint coffee & mocha. Taste chocolate, malt, faint lactose, coconut, & coffee;, slight roasty bitter finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a dark burnt brown with a small tan head with light lacing. Aroma is of dark roasted caramel malt with some espresso beans. Taste of dark roasted caramel malt lightly burnt espresso and malt give it a mild bitter flavor. Palate is a medium to full body, slightly creamy and smooth texture with mild carbonation. Finishes with a roasted slightly burnt dark caramel malt, some espresso, mild bitterness for balance. Overall a good, flavorful and solid porter

What a cool story to go with this brew. I'm not really sure if it's just marketing, but regardless, this is a great one. Sour, roasted aroma - off-putting some, very inviting to me. I was really impressed with the sour yeasty taste, and this characteristic is what really made me love this beer. I had this brew prior to finding my real love - the sour ale, and this was a good indicator of where I was headed. Grab it if you can find it.

 

Appearance - Pretty much completely black with almost no head that faded quickly.

Smell - A toffee-like, caramel smell.

Taste - Malty, lightly bitter, with a coffee-like finish.

Mouthfeel - Kinda thick with light carbonation.

Overall - Not the greatest in my opinion.. but I think porters just aren't my thing.

I recieved this in my monthly club selections from Half Time distributing, so I'm surprised to see it listed as retired!

This beer has made a Porter fan out of me! It's an amazing story of culturing yeast from sunken 19th.Century beer and recreating it!

This has a full long lasting head, dark brown color, well carbonated and just the right malt taste. Considering the yeast it should have tasted like old boots !
(Which does happen, I know, I once homebrewed a batch that was booty!)
Hopefully, you can get your hands on some of this realy superb brew!

This poured out as a semi thick looking black tar liquid. The head came and went pretty quickly. The smell was heavily roasted and burnt smelling with some bitterness on the nose. The taste was kind of charred in my opinion, it was very burnt tasting. There wasn't too much else happening in the taste, I was able to get much of a hop flavor or some kind of dark fruits. The mouthfeel was decent had a dry feel to it. Overall I don't think I'll be missing this beer since it's been retired.

Poured very dark brown into a tulip with a thin film of tan head. Powerful aroma of molasses, nutty caramel, and hints of fig and vanilla.

Low carbonation and a light mouthfeel that seems to alternate between thin and creamy. Some nutty malt sweetness up front followed by a slightly bitter finish with hints of dark chocolate and bit of coffee. Easy drinking and quite complex, although the flavors didn't quite stack up to the aroma's promise.

I decided to review this one because it is pretty much the beer that got me in to craft brewing. Besides that, the story of the sunken ship is actually pretty cool. The color is very dark brown, and comes with a small amount of white heading. The smell is of light cocoa, molasses and ink. The taste is very similar to the smell, with an almost milky quality that compliments the chocolate characters. The moithfeel is light, and easy on the palate, with just a small amount of carbonation. For me, this is what an English style Porter is. It may not be as impressive as it was when I first tried it, but it is still a damn tasty beer that I am glad I revisited.