Brodie's Prime
Hawkshead Brewery /

 

 

From a 500ml bottle.
L: Very dark brown, nearly black. Very little light passes through when backlit. A thick, loose, big-bubbled, tan-coloured head collapses quickly but leaves plenty of lacing.
S: Rich, warm notes of dark fruit and cocoa.
T: This is a fruity, well-hopped, dark bitter. Can taste oak and light caramel as the beer warms.
F: Medium/light body with moderate carbonation. Light stickiness and a dry finish.
O: A really good dark ale. Unlike porters, stouts, brown ales, pale ales, golden ales, IPAs... this isn't a style of English ale that's particularly in vogue at the moment. Although CAMRA classify 'Brodie's Prime' as a porter, I reckon its lovely bitter fruitiness makes it more like an ESB.

 

 

 

 

 

What a great find, a english porter that like it was made in North America with all the big hops and flavours we come to expect. Deep long finish that is rich with dark malty notes. There is a dryness to the beer which works well with the richness of the flavours. I thought the mouthfeel was spot on as well which is so important in a porter. One of my new fave UK breweries.

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Sept 2011, so it's a little out of date. Picked up cheap from my nearest beer specialist.

Poured into a Sam Smith's pint glass. A dark reddish-brown colour with good carbonation just visible. Produces a thick head of creamy light-brown foam that lasts for a couple of minutes before collapsing to a surface layer. The aroma is fantastic; sweet chocolate notes blend with fruity aromatic hops, accompanied by hints of roasted malt, coffee and yeast.

Tastes of sweet, dark malt with a dry, mildly bitter finish. Notes of chocolate syrup, cocoa, coffee, roasted grain, stewed hops, dried fruit, earthy yeast and very faint hoppy citrus. A mild background sourness is discernible. Mouthfeel is smooth and full-bodied, leaving the palate dry. Aftertaste of dark malt and chocolate.

Very nice - a great blend of flavours. The chocolate notes seem to be dominant, but plenty going on. A well-balanced dark ale with a pleasing aromatic hop character. Well worth trying if you come across it.

500ml bottle, a new arrival amongst many from the UK to our fair province.

This beer pours a clear, very dark russet amber hue, with two fingers of dense foamy pale beige head, which settles agonizingly slowly, eventually giving up a decent random array of painted lace around the glass. It smells of sweet biscuit malt, and mild grassy, earthy hops. The taste is a bit of an uptick - the biscuit malt becomes more astringent, in a still pleasant manner, bolstered by some dry chocolate and edgy toffee malt, mild fruity licorice, and bitter, zippy grassy hops. The carbonation is on the low side, but only just so, still displaying a desire to be heard. A strong astringency pervades the body, rendering it all just less than medium weight, and even less so on the smoothness index. It finishes quite dry, the biscuity malt, and bitter earthy hops doing quite the finishing number.

A nice, unexpectedly hopped-up dark ale from the UK. Some mild sourness validates the label's claim of porter heritage, amongst the otherwise indicative notions when deeply suppin' this near-pint's worth.