15 Mile Porter
Ascension Brewing Company

 

16 ounce can into tulip glass; no can dating, but was just released. Pours opaque dark brown/black color with a 1 finger fairly dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a light amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, maple, brown sugar, coconut, almonds, toffee, and toasted dark/brown bread; with light notes of vanilla, molasses, licorice, raisin, plum, smoke, herbal, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt, maple, coconut, almond, and light fruity yeast/earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, maple, brown sugar, coconut, almonds, toffee, and toasted dark/brown bread; with light notes of vanilla, molasses, licorice, raisin, plum, smoke, herbal, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal/roasted bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, maple, brown sugar, coconut, almonds, toffee, toasted dark/brown bread, vanilla, light dark fruit/smoke, herbal, and yeast/roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, maple, coconut, almond, and light fruity yeast/earthy hop flavors; with a solid roast/hop bitter/sweet balance; and no cloying/acrid flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering hop/roast bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready, and lightly sticky/chalky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Zero warming alcohol for 5.5%. Overall this is a fantastic flavored American porter! All around outstanding complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, maple, coconut, almond, and light fruity yeast/earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the mildly bitter/drying finish. Impressively rich for the ABV. Perfectly balanced malts, maple, coconut, and almond flavorings; with mild fruity yeast and earthy hops against sweetness. A highly enjoyable offering, and amazing style example. Not overly roasty/charred on malts.

a robust porter with a nice sessionable abv and a cool spike of coconut and maple, almonds too i think. gosh is it ever sweet, but its cool they could work so much flavor into it at this abv, often these run way up in strength, so its cool that this doesnt needs to do that, but it sure is diabetic, even a few sips feels like a lot, and watching my colleague drink a whole one made my teeth and belly hurt. they do a stronger version of this in rye barrels called 30 mile porter, which i would love to try, but having this one be a little more accessible is cool. its not overly flavored, but the sweetness of the maple overwhelms the robustness of the roasted grain and the bitterness and earthiness that come with it. normally not a problem, but it throws the balance off a bit here. the almonds are cool, subtle, but the flavor they add is really neat. i wish this was a little less sugary because the flavor is there. i could see this benefiting from a bit of smoked malt for some grain counterpoint. desserty but delicious. one of the only beers they had in here that wasnt hoppy.

 

I tried this at the brewery there at the ice rink. It tasted like diet coke.