Zé Arnaldo
Oitava Colina

Olhão 22/7 2016. 33 cl bottle from Jumbo Supermarket. A guy with an enormous nose fussing with his pipe on the label.

Pours opaque very dark brown with a light beige head. Stable. Settles as thin layer of foam stretching to cover the surface of the beer. Lacing on the side of the glass.

Aroma of dark roasted malts, dark chocolate, bitter coffee, brown sugar and caramel. Pleasant with a bitter edge.

Soft carbonation and thick oily palate. Soft, smooth, lightly tingling texture

Flavor has distinct coffee and cocoa bitterness which is only partially balanced by sweetness. Bitterness lingers in aftertaste.

Lives fully up to the term "Robust Porter".

 

 

Tried draft in a large cylindrical glass, looks almost like ristretto (what with all the dark body and beige head, albeit short-lived) and the taste carries notes of a good espresso as well. The smell sort of reminded me of, I’ll say- it’s to molasses as what cheese is to milk— bettered by a hundred. I’m not entirely strict with the nomenclature but I find this one closer to stout rather than a porter- the taste is “rounder”, less aggressive. Goes pretty well with presunto, that’s for sure!

Poured to a nonic glass.

A: The body is pitch black with a one finger beige to brown head that turned to be a minimal head after a while. No lacing visible.
S: This beer has three main profiles: malts, coffee and some strong delicious yeast profile.
T: The taste is tremendous as the roastiness from the malts really intertwines with the coffee bringing these two flavors really close. It's awesome for a Porter.
M: The body is medium high to high. Carbonation is perfect. Bitterness from coffee and hops is balanced.
O: Second Oitava Colina beer that I have, liking to see what's coming out of this brewery.

Nice Portuguese porter (it's more like a stout for me) of a dark brown color and a light brown of small size foam.
Smell is typical, nothing really special in it. Roasted malt, cocoa and coffe. I use to say if a porter/stout is good or no if it has notes of coke, since I dislike it and think a beer should not have it. Well.. this one has no coke notes! So it has a fine smell actually.
Taste surprised me. Besides the typical notes, there are some notes of grains and biscuit (specialy in the aftertaste, together with the bitter hint). Subtle earthly notes may be found as well.
Feel is great too. Body is smooth, bitterness is nice (could be a bit higher, maybe), carbonation is fine for a porter/stout, it gets somewhat rough in the end - which I've enjoyed!
Oh yeah.. these portuguese craft beers are definitely surprising me.