Losing my Porter virginity...

Well, I guess you wouldn't like Founder's Porter then. Absolutely love that beer. That was my first porter. So flavorful and rich. Dark, rich, and sexy. Mmm mmm. I would at least give that one a go. But, if you don't like it, you don't like it. There's different beer styles for everyone!

 

To stay in a English ale realm lets do this! Maybe it will help, its an analogy game!

Browns & Milds = Playboy
Pale's / IPA's = Hustler
Porters / Stouts (Variations) = Crazy German Porn

Its ok, they are just not for everyone.

 

While I did not take the time to read anyone else's comments (as a college student I have too much reading to do as it is, so forgive me if this has been said). I would say for one thing not everyone likes every beer style. BUT, it seems many complex beer styles take time to get used to. Start out with a brown ale, like Samuel Smith's, try a middle of the road stout, then after some time move to another porter. Sierra Nevada makes excellent an excellent year round Porter. I hated porters, did what I said above, tried SN Porter and voila, I like porters. Not to say its guaranteed but you never know til you try.

 

What sources do you use to state that roast barley is an issue? You seem to be judging these beers on what the brewers deign to call them.You just cannot go unilaterally to state a difference.These beers are brewed in many countries and you shouldn't base your statements on what happens locally.There are hundreds of stouts and porters brewed for example in the UK where there are 1000 craft brewers.Can you speak for them too? Beer is universal and international.

 

Yes.

Bluegrass Dark Star Porter was the first one I had. Its probably not my favorite, but I still like it a lot.

 

Sorry. You can call your beer whatever you want. But the styles are close together, and typically when judging, the differences are defined in the style guidelines by a pronounced roastiness in stouts that typically is not present in porters. I stand by my statements. The source you request was both the BJCP style guidelines (see categories 12 and 13), and the World Beer Cup style guidelines (see 74, 75, and 83 and 84).

Like I said, call your beer what you want. But calling a roasty bitter dry black beer a porter doesn't make it one. It's a stout.

 

Beer guidelines are matters of opinion and like many,many others I have little regard tor the BJCP ones. And the BJCP is in turn aware of its shortcomings but it exists primarily as sorting entries for homebrewing competitions and not as an arbiter of styles.In fact they are so wide of the mark in some cases they appear as fantasy.And other styles as far as they are concerned don't exist.

 

I also quoted World Beer Cup. I can also go to other commercial style descriptions. I agree that they are blunt instruments. But no one has yet to come up with anything better.

Once again, call your beer whatever you want. The rest of us will use a commonly agreed to nomenclature as our starting point.

 

Had a Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter over the weekend. If there's ever been a porter tailor-made for dark beer newbies, it's that one.

 

My first was Molson Porter which was brewed in my hometownand and for the time as fairly special. By today's standards you'd probably have a hard time giving it away, if it was still being brewed of course.

In the porter sweepstakes I'd recommend both Carnegie and BrewDog Alice Porter.

 

Founders or Great Lakes, if you dont like those you may not be a porter guy. Attempt to get it fresh to see if that hepls with the stale taste you were talking about.

 

Well, since I usually crave some sort of chocolate or sweet after every meal I latched on to stouts and porters before any other style of beer. There are styles that I didn't like at first or took a few different beers to find the right one to get me to appreciate the style. I'd say just drink the styles you enjoy!

A couple of options IMO would be a Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter, Founders Porter, or maybe a Bell's Double Cream Stout(I think I remember that one being an easier one?)

 

I enjoyed porters from day one, first one I had was founders porter and it was unbelievable. Keep trying for the sake of porter enjoyment, they're just too damn good not to drink.

 

Agreed, had it over the weekend too. Very tame, easy to drink. Not for the hardcore stout drinker, I'm sure, but I found it tasty enough.

 

Try and get a hold of a Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald. This is the the beer that made me get "it"

 

You ever been to France?