Black Irish Plain Strawberry Porter
Scotch Irish Brewing Company

Black Irish Porter with added strawberries, specially made for Volo's Cask Days, where I enjoyed a pint.

One of my complaints against recent bottlings of the porter is that the body seems to thin and this lets the flavours down. The cask conditioning went a long way to fixing that and certainly helped it punch above its weight.

Pours a very deep brown, which appears black until held up to the light. A small frothy white head forms before dropping to a collar. There's certainly not enough carbonation from the cask to result in good retention, but this is to be expected. A vague fruitiness joins stale coffee grounds and a dusty roastiness in the aroma. The fruitiness is very subdued in the flavour, and perhaps underplayed seeing they were aiming for a fruit flavoured porter. Mild berry notes add a low level of sweetness, and coffee and cocoa powder provide decent roast accents to a pretty serviceable beer. Medium body and low carbonation are a quantum leap from the wateriness of the bottled version.

This is an interesting take, and had I not known in advance I wouldn't have picked this out as a fruited porter. What has happened though is I've jumped back in time to drink the Black Irish of yesteryear. One thing though - how can it still be called plain porter if it has fruit added?