Apple Crisp Porter
Concord Craft Brewery

Pours a three finger light-tan head that fades quickly, leaving some lace. Dark brown color, no highlights. Good carbonation and medium bodied. Caramel and apple pie seasoning nose. Flavor follows with hints of caramel and apple pie. 16oz can, pricey at $17.99 4-pak, Calebs Country Store Barrington, NH.

 

From the can, it pours a clear dark brown with reddish hints and a small light tan/creamy head that lasts. In the nose, it is roasted malts with a touch of apple crisp. In the mouth, it is the same - malts and a touch of apple.

From the 16 oz. can dated 11/14/19. Sampled on December 13, 2019.

The appearance is a handsome looking ruby-red hued brown tone with a lingering tan head.

Intriguing aroma of dark roasted malts and apple blossoms or more specifically green apples.

Light to medium mouthfeel.

The taste is sweet but with a rich apple sensation kicking in. Clean finish.

This is my first beer from Concord Craft, a small brewery based out of Concord, NH. I've seen their stuff on shelves before, but not many of their beers have actually jumped out at me... then this came out. I don't think it existed in packaged form available in stores last year or I would've grabbed it. You see, I am a huge apple crisp fan, and this seems like a good way to do an apple crisp-influenced beer. I've had one other beer that had this general idea (I think it was more based on apple cobbler, but they're similar enough), which was Crum by Stony Creek, though the new DFH beer Suddenly Comfy is also kinda in the same vein. Let's hope this one is good.

Pours a dark brown color with some decent ruby highlights if held up to direct light. Nice, dense head of eggshell-white/slightly beige foam that builds up to about a finger-and-a-half. Great, consistent lacing, a slight legginess, and a mostly-hazy surface give this a pretty solid appearance. I was glad to see it wasn't super-dark and aggressive looking. Reminds me a little of an English-style brown porter in some ways.

The nose definitely brings out some apple crumble and cinnamon notes with a touch of baking spice/allspice. I'm getting some brown malts, dark pumpernickel bread spiciness, and a bit of a suggestion of the earthy oats mentioned on the label. At under 6% ABV, this really isn't pushing a ton of complex aromatics, as it's a "smaller" porter, but what's here is good. I think I could probably stand to smell a little more of the apple (what's there is kinda mealy and minimal), and would love this to have a more robust "mulled cider"-like note to it, but my wishes are sadly not to be granted with this beer. I think there's a slight sulfuric-ness to this beer which could have to do with the way the apples were added, however. It somewhat distracts from what should by all accounts be a more impressive first encounter with this good concept.

Dry and bitter flavor profile with a decent hit of cinnamon followed by dusty nutmeg and brown malts in the mid-palate. Earthy and kinda musty, but I think its heart is probably in the right place. And that has to count for something, doesn't it? Again, I want the apples to pop here, but they're definitely buried under a blanket of brown malts in such a way that they don't really come across much whatsoever. A touch of roast joins the proceedings here and there, but I can't get that much more from this beer. It is a dry, somewhat spice-inflected porter with some suggestions of seasonal wintry dessert, but not much more than that. Unfortunately it's not faring much better than the only other beer (mentioned above) that I can really compare it to. One and done for me.