Black Cat Porter
Third Street Aleworks

 

A: Pours black, with a mocha head.

S: Really nice roasted malt, dark roast coffee and chocolate in the nose.

T: Taste is pretty much the same. Roasted malt, dark roast coffee, dark chocolate. Robust, like a good porter should be.

M: Medium bodied, average carbonation. Not great.

O: While it could be perhaps a bit smoother, it's a good porter. Pretty typical of the style.

 

This is a very nice, solid porter with a rich, foamy, tan head over a very dark, essentially black, body.

In taste, it's smooth with a lively but full texture and a full range of flavours, with elements of chocolate, caramel, toast, and stewed fruit and a faint hint of coffee. The flavour is rich but very being well-balanced and very smooth and drinkable.

I've had it from the cask and on tap. From the cask, it is overall more mild but has a stronger peppery and caramel qualities.

Appearance – This AP was very dark in color with some nice purple highlights. The head came up just right and was a beautiful off-white in color.

Smell – There’s a strong milky kind of coffee aroma here that’s mixed with some light, high quality chocolate. The malts are light and make a good, solid slightly-roasty base to the nose.

Taste – The big black coffee comes out to play. There’s a lot more sugar in here than I gathered from the nose, and the alcohol comes on a bit as well. It’s kind of like red wine or a tawny port.

Mouthfeel – This is medium-bodied and maybe even a little stingy from the alcohol.

Drinkability – This was a little rough around the edges, especially coming from the tap, but I enjoyed it.