Salted Caramel
Waterloo Brewing


- From:
- Waterloo Brewing
- Ontario, Canada
- Style:
- American Porter
Ranked #536 - ABV:
- 6%
- Score:
- 83
Ranked #33,751 - Avg:
- 3.46 | pDev: 10.12%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 7
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Feb 06, 2022
- Added:
- Dec 20, 2018
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 1
Rich, creamy caramel and a savoury sprinkling of sea salt come together to make this deep brown ale the perfect finish to any hearty holiday feast. Handcrafted with roasted malts for a smooth, balanced brew, Waterloo Salted Caramel Porter has just enough sweetness to set you right for the night.
27 IBU
27 IBU
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Reviewed by Pmicdee from Canada (ON)
3.62/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.62/5 rDev +4.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Well I was expecting far worse. Pours a dark mahogany colour with not much of a head. I get a burnt sweetness on the nose. The taste is very sweet, caramel, molasses, toffee, coffee, and a nuttiness are the notes I taste. I don't detect much salt, if any. Having said the above, the taste of this beer is not off-putting and perhaps enjoyable, albeit just one would be enough at a sitting.
Feb 6 2022
Feb 06, 2022Feb 6 2022
Reviewed by InspectorHound from Canada (ON)
3.49/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.49/5 rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Look: Deep rich brown with amber highlights. Pours with a huge 2 1/2 finger rocky beige head. The head disapates slowly leaving a full covering at 5 minutes.
Smell: Sweet chocolate and caramel. It has an airy quality.
Taste: Very sweet and sugary, but that should be expected in a salted caramel beer. The caramel hits hard in the middle, but comes across as very artificial flavoured. I didn't really pick up on the salt at all.
Feel: Medium bodied with a low to moderate carbonation.
This beer looked great, and smelled pretty. The taste was a little artifiical and over the top, but it is a dessert beer so I wouldn't say that was unexpected. This earns a strong B-.
Oct 22, 2020Smell: Sweet chocolate and caramel. It has an airy quality.
Taste: Very sweet and sugary, but that should be expected in a salted caramel beer. The caramel hits hard in the middle, but comes across as very artificial flavoured. I didn't really pick up on the salt at all.
Feel: Medium bodied with a low to moderate carbonation.
This beer looked great, and smelled pretty. The taste was a little artifiical and over the top, but it is a dessert beer so I wouldn't say that was unexpected. This earns a strong B-.
Reviewed by thehyperduck from Canada (ON)
3.34/5 rDev -3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
3.34/5 rDev -3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
473 mL can purchased at the LCBO; dated Aug 16 2019 and served barely chilled.
Pours chestnut brown with reddish highlights, deep in hue yet possessing crystal clarity. Nearly a finger of foamy, light beige-coloured head sits atop, wilting in less than two minutes' time; a tight, creamy-looking collar remains, along with a few scattered swaths of lace. Brown sugar and caramel sweetness dominate its confectionery-like aroma, with precious little room for anything else, save for a few subtler notes of cocoa and roasted malts.
It's very sugary, but I suppose I knew what I was signing up for when I paid for the ticket. Caramelized sugars, roasted malts and cocoa comprise the bulk of the flavour profile - emphasis on both 'caramelized' and 'sugars' - while the saltiness is borderline imperceptible. It does become barely discernible towards the back end, but for the most part it's just more sugary caramel sweetness through the finish and into the aftertaste. Light-ish in body, with low carbonation levels that gently prickle the palate, as well as a smooth, slick, kinda slimy/tongue-coating quality that I'm not especially keen on. I finished the glass without too much fuss, but I was tiring of this beer well before that endpoint.
Final Grade: 3.34, a B-. This is about what I'd expect from a Salted Caramel beer from Waterloo, and I will say that I like it more than most of their mainline products - for instance, I'd take it over their Dark or their Amber. It's still sweeter than I'd prefer from a medium-strength porter, and thus not a brew I expect to return to any time soon... but with these flavoured/gimmick beers, I tend to be lenient as long as they do whatever it says on the tin. There's way too much caramel, and not enough salt, but they're both there, so mission accomplished I guess.
Jan 17, 2020Pours chestnut brown with reddish highlights, deep in hue yet possessing crystal clarity. Nearly a finger of foamy, light beige-coloured head sits atop, wilting in less than two minutes' time; a tight, creamy-looking collar remains, along with a few scattered swaths of lace. Brown sugar and caramel sweetness dominate its confectionery-like aroma, with precious little room for anything else, save for a few subtler notes of cocoa and roasted malts.
It's very sugary, but I suppose I knew what I was signing up for when I paid for the ticket. Caramelized sugars, roasted malts and cocoa comprise the bulk of the flavour profile - emphasis on both 'caramelized' and 'sugars' - while the saltiness is borderline imperceptible. It does become barely discernible towards the back end, but for the most part it's just more sugary caramel sweetness through the finish and into the aftertaste. Light-ish in body, with low carbonation levels that gently prickle the palate, as well as a smooth, slick, kinda slimy/tongue-coating quality that I'm not especially keen on. I finished the glass without too much fuss, but I was tiring of this beer well before that endpoint.
Final Grade: 3.34, a B-. This is about what I'd expect from a Salted Caramel beer from Waterloo, and I will say that I like it more than most of their mainline products - for instance, I'd take it over their Dark or their Amber. It's still sweeter than I'd prefer from a medium-strength porter, and thus not a brew I expect to return to any time soon... but with these flavoured/gimmick beers, I tend to be lenient as long as they do whatever it says on the tin. There's way too much caramel, and not enough salt, but they're both there, so mission accomplished I guess.
Reviewed by TerryW from Canada (ON)
3.39/5 rDev -2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3.5
3.39/5 rDev -2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3.5
Yow! Sugah! This beer is tooth-aching sweet. Its got some malt happening, you get the caramel clearly alongside chocolate. Appetizing enough on the nose, but excessively sweet and somewhat artificial in character. Thinbodied. Novelty or dessert beer.
Oct 26, 2019Reviewed by pootz from Canada (ON)
2.88/5 rDev -16.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3
2.88/5 rDev -16.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3
produced on the brewery's Tap house micro brew system - On tap @ the Brewery - poured a clear dark mahogany color with ruby highlights and a 1 finger tan cap....aroma is pungent with cocoa, and milky caramel sweetness....flavor approximates aroma with a big blast of bittersweet dark chocolate tastes...cocoa, lightly bitter roastiness in balance with a milky-caramel discernment..semi dry wet finish...I found nothing wrong with this brew except it seemed synthetic in the sharp flavoring, like essence was added...maybe not but it left that impression with me.
Sep 20, 2019Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)
3.56/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
3.56/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
473ml can - cost me under 3 bucks, I'm afraid to mention, for some reason.
This beer pours a clear, dark bronzed amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and somewhat bubbly tan head, which leaves some layered streaky lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.
It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, saline solution, a hint of bittersweet cocoa powder, and some ephemeral earthy, musty, and dead floral hops. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, wet saltine crackers, discount store chocolate wafers, faint day-old coffee grounds, and more well-understated leafy, musty, and musky floral hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly mild in its wan-seeming frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, with a wee airy creaminess arising as soon as things warm up a tad at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the malt starting to lose its steam in the lingering environment.
Overall - well, this was a lot better than I was expecting (backhanded compliment FTW!), as it certainly possesses the titular characteristics. Nothing too complex, admittedly, but easy enough to put back, especially considering the aforementioned shelf tag.
Jan 26, 2019This beer pours a clear, dark bronzed amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and somewhat bubbly tan head, which leaves some layered streaky lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.
It smells of gritty and grainy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, saline solution, a hint of bittersweet cocoa powder, and some ephemeral earthy, musty, and dead floral hops. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, wet saltine crackers, discount store chocolate wafers, faint day-old coffee grounds, and more well-understated leafy, musty, and musky floral hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly mild in its wan-seeming frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and generally smooth, with a wee airy creaminess arising as soon as things warm up a tad at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the malt starting to lose its steam in the lingering environment.
Overall - well, this was a lot better than I was expecting (backhanded compliment FTW!), as it certainly possesses the titular characteristics. Nothing too complex, admittedly, but easy enough to put back, especially considering the aforementioned shelf tag.
Reviewed by buschbeer from Ohio
3.07/5 rDev -11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 1.25 | overall: 3
3.07/5 rDev -11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3 | feel: 1.25 | overall: 3
473 mL can
Served in a snifter
This beer pours a deep brown color with ruby highlights when held to the light. It is topped with an inch of tan head that leaves a few spots of lacing.
The smell is pretty nice. I can smell salted caramel along with some chocolate and roasted malt.
The taste of salted caramel is there but watered down. I get some beer flavor too. With faint coffee in the finish. It's like a salted caramel porter was mixed half and half with a macro lager.
Thin bodied with watery mouthfeel
It's a decent flavored dark lager, but since it is a porter it is pretty weak. I might buy one for my mom. She'll probably like it.
Jan 04, 2019Served in a snifter
This beer pours a deep brown color with ruby highlights when held to the light. It is topped with an inch of tan head that leaves a few spots of lacing.
The smell is pretty nice. I can smell salted caramel along with some chocolate and roasted malt.
The taste of salted caramel is there but watered down. I get some beer flavor too. With faint coffee in the finish. It's like a salted caramel porter was mixed half and half with a macro lager.
Thin bodied with watery mouthfeel
It's a decent flavored dark lager, but since it is a porter it is pretty weak. I might buy one for my mom. She'll probably like it.
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