The Landlord's Daughter In Black Satin
Granite Brewery & Restaurant

I stopped by the beer store attached to the restaurant (great deal, too: $12+deposit for 2L) and saw one last lonely growler of this limited-edition brew in the fridge. I asked about it, and he said this might be the last growler of Landlord's Daughter in existence, as they might be retiring the beer. Like any good advocate of beer, I had to have it. He warned me that it was exceptionally smokey, and I didn't believe him until cracking it open.

Pours a thick, viscous black, like motor oil: almost completely opaque to the bare eye, with barely a glimmer of brown around the edges. Coming out of a growler I missed out on any head, but the bubbly film on top gives it even more of an intimidating, oily appearance. The smell is smokey all the way, with very strong coffee notes. Charcoal, chocolate, a lot of bitter smells, but very well balanced.

The taste... whoa, big punch of smoke up front (he warned me) but surprisingly that melts away into a blend of coffee, cloves, bitterness, and a sweet sugary note trying to fights its way to the top amid all of the smokey chaos. After that first surprising punch of flavour, you can really start to flesh out all of the different tastes, with the almost marshmallowy sweetness being the lingering aftertaste. Smells like a campfire, tastes like coffee and roasted marshmallow... should've taken this one camping.

Mouthfeel is unfortunately thin and unremarkable, not sure if that's the growler's fault. Definitely tasty, but one beer filled me up with enough smoke flavour to not want another for a little while.

On tap at the brewpub, into a pint glass.

Poured a relatively viscous black, with a tan/khaki head that lingered with phenomenal retention albeit minimal lace. Nose is full of cocoa, roasted malt, some smoke (not to heavy, a good thing for me!) and a hint of some coffee bean. Taste is fairly similar, a subtle mix of chocolate, coffee and some smoke with a gentle overall sweetness. Mouthfeel is somewhat dry and gritty, yet retains some good creaminess in how fast this moves down the gullet. Really good drinkability for a porter, given the relative thickness of this beer. Real nice effort down there, hope this stays around as a regular offering.

I've had a couple opportunities to try this one - once on tap at the Granite with Ron, and another time on cask at the C'est What fall fest.

Pours black with ruby highlights and a finger of creamy tan head. Lacing in sheets and good retention finish a flawless appearance. Nose has nice smoke, coffee and bitter chocolate, all in really good balance. Ron's aim here was not to overwhelm with the smoke, and he's managed to artfully weave it into a great robust porter base. Much the same can be said of the flavour, which never forgets its porter character, and has some fantastic coffee and cocoa to compliment the sweet smokiness. My one complaint was that the body needed a little more weight to punch it up, but this was remedied in the cask version.

A delightful beer and one of the Granite's best to date. Right up there with the BBS and Keefe's Stout!

On cask at C'est What's 2010 Fall Festival of Craft Breweries. Pours dark brown with nice tan head. Smells quite smokey with dark roast. Flavour has a smokey coffee taste, which is quite nice. Very smooth mouthfeel. I hope this does get brewed again because I'd definitely order it if I see it.

Enjoyed immensely outside at the brewpub. Wow factor: First the smoke breezes my way, and then a coffee black beer with lasting quarter inch of white head, a little lace follows. Smooth mouthfeel,though not significantly thick, very drinkable smooth porter, excellently roasted malt, a little chocolate milkshake and coffee, sasaparilla. Cross-style black beer, imperial porter, understated smoke in flavour.