Pitfield 1850 London Porter
Pitfield Organic Brewery

 

Very dark mahogany red. Some head, beige, quickly vanishing.
At the smell, caramel, mou, chocolate, plums, raisins.
The taste starts sweet, with fruit and choccolate, but after that there is a sourish metallic taste not really good.
Same in the aftertaste.
Light body. It left a veil of not toopleasant sourishness on the tongue.

500ml brown bottle, bottle-conditioned at 5%abv. BB 12/2006, served cool in a jug.

A: pours a very dark brownish hue, with some ruby hints when seen against light; the thin but foamy beige beer head slowly settles, leaving not much lacing behind.
S: standard porter aroma--roasted and burned note of malts, chewy, roughly-crushed grainy note, on top of a sweeter edge like chunky dark milk chocolates, decorated with a flow of aromatic, even perfumy, fruity hoppyness at the back. Very pleasant, though not terribly complex.
T: very "unfocused", astringent "smoked prune" and Chinese black-date juice flavour hits the palate upfront, along with hints of more sour-dried dark fruits, gradually bringing the flavour back to something more predictible and pleasant--chewy dark grains, dark chocolates, a semi-lingering char flavour and a touch of . Finished with a salty edge of prunes.
M&D: overly thin and stimulating upfront on the mouthfeel, not akin to a normal porter, while the overall body is also a bit too light. Don't know if at 1850 it was indeed a popular porter, but definitely not to my taste at some 150 years later... The lack of balance is the problem, plus the strong contradiction b/w nose and initial flavour.

This beer can be found in a tiny shop in the London area of Shoreditch along side other unique beers, but this one is crafted by the brewery on the premises along with a full range of beers. It is ruby-black and has a burnt (charcoal) and coffee aroma. The light body gives rise to the slightly sweet, burnt, coffee, and licorice flavors. I image this is more indicative of old time porters. It is diffferent from most porters I have tried.

Interesting nose, public toilets, earth, farmyard, wood, mixed in with chocolatey roasty aromas. Mild palate, with some nice acidity, smooth sourness, nice chocolatey, woody palate. A bit pooey aswell, which was interesting. A bit odd, but in a good way.