Oaked Robust Porter
Blindman Brewing

 

A free afternoon turned into a road trip to Lacombe and another visit to Blindman. This is a tasty rendition of the robust porter, though I'm not sure the "aging" does much to improve an already solid beer. It looks nice in the glass, but I'm not much for the smell. It's too sweet for this cowboy - I would prefer roast and depth. The taste has plenty of char, grain, and malt, with subtle hints of vanilla, chocolate syrup and dark fruit. Overall, this is another very agreeable brew from one of Alberta's newest breweries.

650ml bottle, a new release format for this central Alberta brewery, after kegs and their canning of the session ale and kettle sour. Just a NB for the newbies - aged in oak definitely means 'new beer' 'round these parts.

This beer pours a clear, very dark brown cola colour, with two fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some hovering Vogon constructor ship lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of slightly smokey pale and caramel malt, a further free-range wet ashiness, subtle generic whisk(e)y barrel notes (vanilla and a rye-like boozy astringency), bittersweet cocoa powder, some berry-forward red wine notes, subtle cafe-au-lait, and a faint earthy and musty hop bitterness. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, more independent char, wet n' sauced-up wood (with a sense of 'blended' wine and whisky that would make the most hedonistic of the 80s Sunset Strip types blush), wan medium chocolate, some understated black licorice-laced coffee, and more underdeveloped earthy and dead leafy hop bitters.

The carbonation is quite easy-going in its gentle and glad-handing frothiness, the body an adequate middleweight, and generally smooth, none of the barrel or roasty essences really taking that much of a toll, as such. It finishes off-dry, the singed chocolate and further fading barrel notes the lingering order of the day.

For 3 months pressed to the wood, this comes off quite well - the graininess of, well, let's just say some sort of aged alcohol woodiness, does a grand job of keeping it on the down-low, while still informing the whole. I made light of the 'robust' nature of this brew the first time around, but I suppose I should now keep that part of my impression to my bloody self.

Less a new beer in its own right, this is actually Blindman's standard Robust Porter left to age in oak barrels for three months (though it seems like aging is an ongoing process and the "age" of various batches will change).

At three months, the oak has softened the edges of the Robust Porter without making a *huge* flavour difference; I am in the minority on BeerAdvocate in not particularly caring for over-the-top, long-time barrel aging, so this is perfect for me. There's a subtle added sweetness, an ever-so-slight vanilla/caramel, and a reduction in the graininess/grittiness of the standard porter: all welcome changes. The body and weight is great, the carbonation balanced. And it looks beautiful in the glass. Tasty stuff.