Coffee Crunch Porter
Manayunk Brewery and Restaurant

This was another beer that I picked up recently at Total Wine in West Orange, as I hadn't had anything from Manayunk in quite some time. I expected this to be a roasted take on the style that would be a bit lighter than it's British counterparts and that turned out to be the case with this offering. It was quite robust and true to it's name but could have bit had a few more hops in it to give it some more heft and flavor!

Not surprisingly, the beer poured like coffee but had a massive, mocha head that filled easily filled up the remainder of my pint glass and took a while to fully settle down. Most of the lacing was in the form of a soapy sheet that clung from the middle downwards as there weren't any rings readily visible. Of course, there was lots of coffee and roasted malt in the nose with a bit of nuttiness underneath that. The taste was just as slick, roasted, and had some oatmeal fullness to it. Roasted coffee beans filled the aftertaste with hints of gritty nuts and slickness giving just a hint of depth that kept this from being one-dimensional.

Not a lot of booze in this as it would have been easy to crack another can down although this wasn't a session beer, nor a breakfast or dessert beer. Without a date on the bottom of the can, it was hard to tell how old this was but there was only a bit of two of sediment at the bottom of the liquid. This was fun to have once but would have been better had it been more robust across the board!

The past couple of days have been an amazing CANmalgam of Goses & Pilsners, but now my supply is exhausted. I had the Duvel as kind of an oddball, but it will lead me back to some of the breweries from which I reviewed beers the last couple of days, including Transmitter, Manayunk (CANayunk), Sly Fox, Conshohocken (CANshohocken), Sloop & Great North. Following that excursion, I will be focusing on imports for a while, bringing me full circle to that one. Stay tuned. It's gonna be CANother wild ride on The CANQuest (tm)! The previous deviation was to a Porter, opening the gateway to CANother Porter (or two).

From the CAN: "Coffee Crunch Porter Brewed with Coffee"; "The Place Where We Drink"; "How do you make our award-winning Porter even better? We add cold brew coffee. Notes of freshly roasted coffee beans tangle with the rich and roasty malts to create a smooth and delicious brew."

I Crack!ed open the vent on this wee 12-fl. oz CAN & beCAN a slow, steady C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. Oh, aye, this was the sort of thing that I was CANting on! It did not disappoint, quickly foaming up to form two-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-tan/light-brown head with decent retention. Color was Dark-Brown to Very Dark Brown (SRM = > 27, < 34) with cola highlights. Nose was really rich with dark-roasted coffee! Now we're talking! Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery, but not far removed. The taste was deeply-roasted dark coffee! Finish was dry and roasty with a deep-roasted coffee flavor that simply lingered. This was a coffee drinker's beer, to be sure, but not one for everybody. YMMV.

L - massive hazelnut head atop dark brown body.

S - burnt coffee, vanilla, caramel.

T - a mild cold-brew iced coffee. Caramel, vanilla, a little chocolate. Low bitterness. Moderate sweetness. Low booziness.

F - medium-thin body with very high carb.

O - mild on flavor, perhaps due to the extreme overcarbing.

Almost solid black with around a close to medium body. Just below average carbonation which seemed a little high for the style.
Aroma was black coffee, roasted malt, and some roasted malt.
Taste followed the nose on this with the roasted malt and coffee being the only flavor found
Overall it was decent but not my favorite from manayunk which usually produces decent beer. It wasnt very complex which is fine but flavor,aroma,and body were just not very rich or deep