Firebean Rye Coffee Porter
Winterlong Brewing Co.

A- Love the colorful artwork on the label here....as for the brew itself, it pours out of the can (which is slightly overfilled), a clear-ish dark brown color and the head is light caramel hued....it is about three fingers thick and stays there for quite sometime, eventually settling down to a solidly thick foam layer over top the liquid. There is very good sticky lacing too as the head settles, hiding any chance of knowing exactly what the carbonation looks like. A solid looking porter!

S- There is a heavy fresh dark coffee aroma, which is very pleasing, alongside dark chocolate, cocoa powder, slightly spicy rye grain (pepper, muted chai, black tea), roasted dark chocolate malts and not a whole lot else but I'm not complaining....this has everything that the label suggests here on the nose!

T- Flavors follow suit to the aromas well, with plenty of dark roast French press coffee present on the palate, lesser but very noticeable notes of dark chocolate, freshly ground cocoa powder, huge char from blackened malts, which provide huge bitterness on the finish, and somewhere in the middle, is a hint of vanilla cream that helps mellow out the coffee. This is actually quite intense flavor wise and I approve of it!

M/O- Creamy carbonation and a solid medium body provide a nice backbone to the overall feel of this porter....it leans into the Stout category for those who aren't familiar with the differences. There is some definite rye spice to compliment a charred coffee/chocolate character.....the alcohol is hidden fairly well....I do get some astringent puckering happening from sip to sip on both sides of my tongue, but it is a minor complaint. A reasonably drinkable porter, I don't know if I would want to have another full pint after an initial trial, but I could definitely see myself enjoying this with some pub grub and/or if I had a couple of smaller sleeves of this. A fine example of a flavored style porter and I do recommend anyone to give this a go!