Happy Holidays 2017 - Chocolate Porter
Alley Kat Brewing Company

650ml, black wax capped (whyyyyyy?) bottle - for some reason, the release of this did not get into my hands until just recently, so hence the lack of timeliness therein. At any rate, thanks again, Van the man!

This beer pours a fairly solid black, with subtle basal amber edges, and three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly beige head, which leaves some decent frilly banded lace around the glass as it quickly sinks out of sight.

It smells of lightly roasted, bready and doughy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, sort of spicy anise, a bit of oily nuttiness, and some plain earthy, musty, and floral hops. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a hint of free-agent ashiness, laid-back chocolate pudding notes, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, earthy nuts, and more understated leafy, herbal, and musky floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite tame in its bored-seeming frothiness, the body an adequate medium weight, and mostly smooth, with perhaps a touch of generic pithiness making a minor dent in the facade here. It finishes off-dry, the caramel and cocoa kind of trailing off into the distance.

Overall - I'm guessing that four months or so wouldn't have affected this one all that much, so I'm confident that I'm appreciating the real deal. Essentially, what we have is a simple, well rendered enough porter, the chocolate adjunct applied in a judicious manner. I'd say check it out, but I guess we'll have to wait until December of the current year, in order to (hopefully) see what they come up with next!