Naughty & Spiced Porter
Russell Brewing Company

Opaque dark brown-black color. Poured a medium height tan colored head which collapsed to a patchy skiff in about 2 minutes. Too dark to see the carbonation level. Left large patches of very fine lacing.

Sweet and spicy smell. Slight amount of yeast. Swirling the glass kicked up a little bit of coffee, and a barnyard that disappeared after a couple of seconds.

Sweet malt flavor initially. Some spices and a light bitter kick in as it warms up. The aftertaste is a mix of bitters and the spices. It tastes a bit as if the spices have been over roasted (or charred), causing the bitters. I'm not a bit fan of the spices in the mix, but at least they aren't very strong.

Mild tongue tingling as it foams up to coarse bubbles. Heavy body.

This might be a nice porter if it didn't have the spices added.

Poured from bomber into Spiegelau stout glass
L- Dark cherry liquid with a tan head.
S- Ginger snaps, nutmeg, vanilla, espresso, dark chocolate, spice
T- Essentially same as smell on initial taste then a strong bitter wave followed by a malty sweetness on finish. Also getting notes of liquid smoke. Flavor is a tad mild though.
F- Too thin bodied to be a porter. More of a black/dark ale. A thicker body may have helped the flavor come through more.
O- This is a quality winter warmer but it certainly isn't porter. The ginger snap and nutmeg was very intriguing but unfortunately they didn't come through much due to lack of body.

 

The spiciness is slight and in the backgroud and, agreeing with other reviewers, the dark malt notes are also slight. In fact, it has more of a black lager feel than a porter feel. However, I really enjoyed this one. I can imagine finishing two or three bombers in one night and the slighty higher ABV is not noticable..........until you've polished off two or three bombers, of course. Definately give this one a try.

 

Naughty & Spiced has an attractive label but the beer itself is also sleek; this definitively black porter has a grey-ish tinted head that looks solid as marble and adds plenty of flair in the form of Jackson Pollock-like patterns of lace. Coal in your stocking - no good. Liquid coal in your glass - yes, please.

A 6.5% porter aged with oak chips, spices and vanilla beans sounds like a distinctive and bold offering. But it doesn't smell like one. Here's hoping things will change after it's had a chance to warm up a little (note: they don't really). How is this so subtly scented when it's made with such aromatic ingredients!?

I don't mean to imply that no spiciness is appreciable. It's somewhat noticeable. But to pick out individual notes of cinnamon, allspice, ginger or nutmeg is doubtful. Even the vanilla - typically a very conspicuous flavour - is mild, when tasted at all. Likewise, the oak chips are pretty much missed entirely.

So what's left? A pretty conventional, plain porter. There is barely enough roasted malt presence to evoke notes of coffee or dark chocolate. Spices, subtle though they may be, are the most impressionable part of the profile. A little more sweetness and I might be noting baked treats like gingerbread cookies.

I want to like Naughty & Spiced more than I do. It's an agreeable beer (owing mostly to its blandness) that will likely suit most people. Me, however, I cannot understand how the addition of oak chips, vanilla beans, and four dynamic spices didn't result in more flavour or distinction. Disappointing.

 

 

 

 

650 ml bottle, gave a couple bottles away as Christmas gifts, but had to keep one for myself.
This beer is basically black, fluffy bubbles of beige foam. Head slowly fades, strings of laces all over glass.
Smell starts almost like a pumpkin ale, clove, and nutmeg, but then the porter qualities come through. Cocoa, caramel, coffee come out as it warms.
Medium body, dry finish. A bit sticky, not really smooth though.
Pretty decent, nothing bad, just not what I was expecting.

Appearance - Pours a dark cola brown with two fingers of frothy tan head.

Smell - roasted malts, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, woodiness from oak barrels, hint of earthy hops.

Taste - Same as the aromas with the roasted malts starting it off followed by the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, slight woodiness from the oak barrel, and finishes with a hint of the earthy hops.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with light to moderate carbonation. Finishes with the lingering spices.

Overall - An easy drinking porter from Russell. The flavours could be more predominate in the taste, but otherwise nice to try another offering from this brewery.

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle - not entirely sure that this is supposed to be different from Fort Garry's version from a few years back. Whatevs, it's brewed at a different location, so ho ho ho it is.

This beer pours a solid near-black, with thorough cola highlights, and two chubby fingers of puffy, rocky, and rather bubbly beige head, which leaves some stellar cobwebbed lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of sharply metallic ginger, clove, and nutmeg spice, a husky men's deodorant muskiness (for reals, and not in a particularly bad way, either), bittersweet cocoa powder, bready caramel malt, ethereal cheap wooden notes, and muddled boozy vanilla. The taste is still big on the overwrought seasonal spices - clove and nutmeg smacking me over the palate, in the manner of walking too near a trendy coffee shop right now - semi-sweet grainy caramel malt, subdued crackery toffee, chalky mocha, dry vanilla-tinted wood chips, and a lurking alcohol astringency.

The bubbles are held pretty tight to the virtual chest (and more validly, the palate) in their peppy fizziness, the body just a tad on the lee side of medium weight, and a bit too acrid to be deemed particularly smooth. It finishes dry and metallic, like that time when you were too drunk on St. Patty's Day to realize how much spice you were giving the stew (and how much wood you were giving the missus, amirite?).

Yeah, this isn't all that, to use a pithy phrase, as the spice, wood, and maybe even the vanilla, are employed with little thought given to blending and harmony, concepts I thought had a lot of mileage right about this time of year. Anyway, anything porter-like gets lost in the mire, the same one that gives numerous Christmas-themed offerings a bit of a bad name - not all, but they should know who they are.