Batch #0011 - Farmhouse Porter
3cross Fermentation Cooperative

Stop adding things you won't review rudzud dammit! Also not really sure about this beer, wasn't planning to get a growler but it was the only one left. Filled yesterday. A porter doesn't' seem like it would go well with farmhouse yeast, the fruity funky notes don't usually blend nicely with a dark beer, but we'll see. Thankfully Dave decided to fix the growler filling, so it's washed, purged, and filled with a tube instead of right out of the tap, and filled to the very top. Glad to see you're learning Dave!

Pours a nice porter head, creamy thick and almost 1 finger mocha colored head that fades fairly slowly, and leaves a nice lacing, just about pitch black beer that very little dark brown light gets through. Maybe the best growler pour from 3cross yet!

Nose is more like what I expected, but not as bad. Plenty of farmhouse like funk, more in tune with a saison, a definite farmhouse yeast funk, but not quite Brett level, and no sourness. A little fruitiness in there, a little citrus rind, almost lime orange blend like rind. With that is a porter, darker malts, a little biscuit like cookie wafer and mild cocoa note, light grassy hop note, with a little candy bar chocolate orange cookie wafer thing. Quite interesting, and actually much better than I expected. Let's see how the taste goes.

Taste is OK but not as good as the nose, bringing creamy darker malts out front, a little mild chocolate and a little choc cookie wafer again, mild chocolate cocoa, a touch of chewy caramel nougat, etc. That quickly gets overpowered by orange peel, mild farmhouse yeast funk, a little yeasty flavor, and herbal spices. Again that farmhouse yeast really cuts through, more in tune with a saison, and doesn't really belong here, but not as bad as I expected. Light funk, again not Brett level of funk, but plenty of funk, with spices that don't blend well with the porter, as well as mild orange and generic citrus zest, a little fruitiness, and a mild chalky mineral flavor too. There is a mild milk chocolate too, and a lactose taste, creamy lactose, and drying lactose. Finish is dry and sticky, very dry lactose feel yet mild sticky feel, a little milk chocolate, as well as mild cookie wafer again, caramel too, and plenty more citrus peel, spices, and mild farmhouse funk lingering.

Mouth is med bod, a creamy and drying lactose feel, lighter but decent carb.

Overall very interesting. If I didn't know this was farmhouse yeast fermentation, I would have assumed it was infected somehow, not really a Brett or bacteria but a weird farmhouse funk in there. The funk, fruitiness, citrus peel and spices don't go very well with the creamy milk chocolate, lactose, caramel and darker malts, but it's actually not that bad. I would have loved to try this with a Dry Irish yeast instead of the farmhouse saison. Still an interesting unique beer.