Snowboarder Porter - Blackberry
Boise Brewing

a tasty, and tastefully done, new edition of this iconic porter. its spiked with blackberry, and from what i can tell is very natural, not overdone, and quite cohesive. always seems like cherry or raspberry as the fruit in dark beers, so its cool to see something different, especially around valentines time. lighter in the pint glass than i remember the base beer being, deep brown but letting in a little light, good head on it from the tap at the brewery. it smells a little sweet, deeply earthy, chocolate dipped, and well refined, nothing from the yeast or the fermentation at all, some minerals under the roast, good depth, not cooked or candied. the flavor has the fruit up front, its kind of the first and last thing i taste with more familiar porter characteristics through the center. dark chocolate and coffee notes, warming and wintery in that way, cozy, with some jammy richness from the fruit, but not enough of it to overtake the base beer, its still porter first and the fruit is just an accent. overall maybe just a little more residual sugar than i need, but a very enjoyable pint here, and relatively unique as this sort of thing goes. get some while you can, i imagine its pretty limited...

Taster at brewery. Murky brown pour, flat. Light roasty aroma, nutty. Taste is more of the roasty porter, light sweet, berry flavors. So-so, seems forced