Black Camel Spider
Carakale Brewing Co.

*archived rating*

 

 

Medium black with a mocha sudsy collar. Cardamom is huge on the nose, the date shines through especially as it warms, light roast coffee lingers. Coffee and cardamom run away from the heavily roasted malts and bittersweet chocolate, dates round out on the finish but ultimately are no match for the cardamom and light coffee. Feel is spiced, roasted, yet light weight though decently viscous. The lack of balance in the taste ruins it for me, you really have to be a cardamom fan to dive into. But hey for a beer from a part of the world that doesn't make a lot, this is pretty solid

 

500ml bottle from Boise Co-op. Near black pour, foamy beige head fades to ring. Aroma is coffee and dates. Taste amplifies the coffee bitterness, minor sweetness from the dates, rich roasty malts, dark chocolate. If you've ever had the Dark Chunky bar, it's like that, but with some warmth.

 

Bottle states it was exported in 2017; pours a dark brown/black color, opaque, with minimal head that fades to minimal lacing; notes of Turkish coffee right off the bat; date-sweetness; impressions of earthy spice/cardamom; dark caramel; faint smokiness and and underlying roasty quality; hint of vanilla; faintest of alcohol heat; smooth body bordering on heavy, with lower carbonation. Overall a tasty coffee-forward porter with nice earthy notes and underlying spice. A fun brew to try, especially if you like dark brews and haven't had any beers from Jordan.

2020-06-13
500ml bottle bought at Craftshack served in a 12oz SIP Fest 2020 snulip. Date on the label says "EXPORT 21/11/2017".

Pours black or dark brown with a small head and not a lot of carbonation. Smell is coffe, yeast, roasty, something a little bit vanilla about it. Not sure if I'm getting anise or not.

Taste is bitter roastiness -- dark roast malt, maybe dark roast coffee. Vanilla seems to be missing from the flavor. More yeast.

Mouthfeel is medium, slightly slick. Overall, it's pretty good.

Pours black with two fingers of dense, caramel-khaki foam. Head retention is great with a dense layer of pillowy foam lingering a long while after the pour. Aroma is roasty, toasty, nutty, earthy, caramely malts with hints and fragments of roasty coffee, chocolate, dates and cardamon. Lightly dry spice within the full and sweet malts. Flavor profile is a smooth induction of roasty, toasty, nutty, earthy, caramely, bready malts. As the malts settle, the additional flavors come out to play, introducing chocolate as the sweet, coffee as a slightly bitter balancing point and finally a hit of dry cardamon. Great dynamic, introducing the tongue to a firm and balanced porter and then treating the tongue to little flavor additions. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a lightly silty, grainy texture that bodes well with the flavor profile. There is a hint of creaminess to it, stopping just shy of pushing this porter into heavy stout territory, at least in terms of texture and feel. Overall, big porter notes that are paired exceptionally well with coffee, dates and cardamon.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 16.9oz bottle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm trying this beer at Bodegas in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It poured an opaque dark with ecru head that is leaving a spotty lace. The scent had dark fruit and date notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with dark fruit base with a cardamom spice highlights. The mouthfeel was medium in body with good carbonation. Overall its a solid beer.

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a thin brown head that dissipates to sparse patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, coffee, light cocoa, mild dates and cardamom. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, cardamom, mild coffee, baker's chocoalte. Medium bodied with light creaminess. A very interesting, exotically flavored porter. The usual dark fruit notes of a Baltic porter are faint here, probably masked by coffee and spice. The coffee is a little over-the-hill, like others reviewed here, it has a 11/17 date on the bottle. The malt and overall porter have handled the year nicely, but the coffee has a little of the typical green pepper notes that seem to accompany that component in storage. Fortunately, it is very minor and the base is dry and dark malty and the cardamom adds a pleasant exotic flavor; added deftly so it does not dominate other flavors. An amazing beer to find coming from Jordan, which is not a country in which I would expect a seasoned craft beer culture. I really liked this and would very much like to try it a little fresher. A wonderful way to tick off an unexpected country. I hope to see more from this brewery.

A: The beer is very close to being opaque brownish/black in color. It poured with a narrow collar of beige bubbles around the edge of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of dates are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of dates and dark and roasted malts with notes of coffee and a light to moderate amount of bitterness. No sweetness from the dates is perceptible.
M: It feels medium- to full-bodied on the palate and has a low to moderate amount of carbonation.
O: I really liked the aromas and flavors of dates in this porter. It was really easy to drink because it wasn't overly sweet and any traces of alcohol were well hidden from the taste.

Serving type: bottle