Porter
Brock Street Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

Purchased at the brewery for just over $3.00 or so for a 473ml can. Served at 7deg C in a draught glass

A- Opens well and pours a 1/2" off white head that lasts for a few minutes before film out

S- Lots of roasted malt

T- Roasted malt as expected with some coco/chocolate. Nice balance but a touch tinny. Has some coffee to it but not a lot. Just a mellow brew.

M- Touch thin but expected from a porter

O- Pretty good brew. With some refinement it will be a good seller

Food Pairing

This pretty good little brew went well with.... Roasted potatoes with Italian seasoning and olive oil

Enjoy

 

650 ML bottle from the brewery.

Deep black with a thin quickly dissipating head. Strong roasted malt aroma. Various mild coffee, chocolate and burnt grain flavours that subside quickly. Rather thin and disappointingly effervescent. This is a decent porter from a newer brewery that deserves revisiting down the line.

Brock Street Porter looks as if it were painted in matte. It is dead black in colour, with no shine whatsoever, and has an opaque, almost roughened complexion. As its head parts off to the sides and exposes the surface it's like staring into a cold northern lake under a starless sky.

This is a fairly aggressive aroma for a supposedly English-style porter. The intensity of roasted grain is so strong as to make coffee (even espresso) notes easy to conceive. Even the inherent chocolate quality is a little richer than usual, far more resembling a creamy dark truffle than dried powder.

However, all those impressions crash after the first few sips; all that rich, boastful character in the bouquet pulls a no-show on the palate. Coffee disappears almost entirely. Chocolate is discounted from highly-conched European pastry to grocery store Easter bunny. There's not even much roasted grain.

I take it back - this is very much a mild, Old World kind of porter after all. It's austere even by British standards. The mouthfeel is the real disappointment; neither the malt, the hops, nor the water make an appreciable contribution texture wise. The aftertaste is void - not a positive attribute for a porter.

To their credit, Brock Street has avoided the pitfalls of most new microbreweries: I've had no quality control issues; new releases have been prompt; the recipes are good, their brewer is great. They're walking before running, and I applaud that. But I'm still waiting to see these guys really take off!