Chocolate Hazelnut Porter
Waterloo Brewing

These guys are essentially working some sort of baseline beer and adding a dose of flavoured syrup. In this case a porter, but they're following the same play with their radlers. Lazy brewing, but hey, just pick your favourite syrup and away you go. Looks okay, moderate head and simple on going lace. Sweet syrupy nose, chocolate, hazelnuts, some sourness. Yeah, chocolately. Maybe a good substitute for your syrup infused coffee if you're looking for some alcohol instead. Meh overall.

473 ml can served cold into chalice. Last of 3 from the Waterloo Seasonal Stout Pack.

Appearance - Dark brown in color, nearing black in the glass. A small half finger of tan head and modest staying power. No lacing to speak of.

Smell - Dark chocolate and some hazelnut, light booziness and even a hint of cherry. Chocolate and hazelnut are intense blunt instruments here.

Taste - Initially nuts and a small amount of dark chocolate, then fades off into oblivion. Some light roasty bitterness with hazelnut comes back in the aftertaste. There's almost a flash of chocolate covered cherries in there, but doesn't quite get there.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied, but somewhat thin and prickly carbonation as opposed to being silky smooth like you might expect a porter of this ilk to be.

Overall - Decent beer in the mixed pack, probably the worst of the 3 but not by much as all three seemed to be heavily adjuncted, with initial burst of flavors and (noses to boot) but nothing with the depth of a finer (and probably boozier) facsimile of a chocolate hazelnut porter.

473 mL can from the LCBO; one of three new dark beers in their winter Signature Series mixed pack. Coded Jul 31 2021 and served barely chilled.

Pours a deep, clear brown colour with ruby red highlights; it's crowned with two fingers of fluffy, foamy, buff-tinged head that seeps off over the next five minutes or so. As it recedes, it cakes the glass with a beautiful curtain of webby lacing, leaving behind a frothy collar and thin, sudsy cap - visually, this is a very enticing porter. Rich dark chocolate, cocoa powder and chocolate shavings on the nose, underlain by notes of hazelnut, vanilla, Nesquik and maybe a hint of double double coffee. Smells more like a dessert than a beer, but so far I mostly like it.

The flavour doesn't deviate much from the aroma - more cocoa at the forefront, with sweeter hints of baker's chocolate and chocolate syrup not far behind. The hazelnut flavouring is more noticeable on the back end, which also features hints of sweetened coffee, as well as plenty more dark chocolate that lingers into a bittersweet aftertaste. I don't entirely dislike the way it tastes, but almost nothing about it strikes me as natural. Medium in body, with fairly light carbonation that softly tickles the surface of the tongue; I didn't have much trouble polishing off this serving, but I don't think I'd want another round afterwards.

Final Grade: 3.44, a B-. If you like Nutella, and you also like dark beers, Waterloo's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter might just be the brew for you. It's not even close to what I want out of a porter, but at the same time, it's not entirely unpalatable, at least if you enjoy dark chocolate. I liked it more than their Salted Caramel Porter. As for the mixed pack as a whole? The three brews included are interesting enough to be worth a try if you're curious, assuming you don't have strong objections to beers with 'added flavour'.