Porter tasting

Definitely, I love imperial porters it's just not the same style as a regular porter. Two separate tastings might be a great idea though.

 

Founders by far the best of the bunch.

If going for a few cheap ones try Stegmaier porter. Used to love it but the distribution has been shaky for a number of years.

 

You need something international:
Żywiec Porter
and this international standard: Fullers Porter.

& from the US:
Smuttynose Baltic Porter

 

Three Floyds Topless Wytch is no slouch.

 

just include Great Lakes Brewing Company's Edmund Fitzgerald. any true tasting of American porters must include this stud of a beer

 

Carnegie Porter from Sweden. It seems to be available in most major markets, and is by far the best one in existence IMO.

 

In no specific order....
Mayflower Porter (East Coast may not be wide Dist)
Old Engine Oil
Maine Beer King Titus
Sierra Nevada Porter
Smuttynose Robust Porter
Kona American Porter
Six Point 4Beans

 

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter is a damn good brew and relatively inexpensive relative to alot of the other beers out there that go for $12+ for 4 and 6 packs

 

Super like this^
Otherwise Everett and Founders Porter are the best American style porters in existence!

 

Last week I did this exact same experiment.... I got a half dozen or so porters that were "standards" and did a shoot out. The above quoted list is almost exactly what I picked except Black Butte is not available where I live and for some reason I left Sierra Nevada out (don't know why!). And my local shop was out of Founders. So instead I included Smuttynose Robust Porter. I REALLY liked the two English examples and of the americans my favorite was Ed Fitz.

In fact, this was my second shootout of what I'm viewing as an ongoing thing: each week I do a shoot out for a different style. In addition to the porter shootout I did an IPA shoot out the week before and this week it will be a brown ale shootout.

 

Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter, Ballast Point Victory at Sea, and Deschutes Black Butte Porter. If possible I would add Deschutes Black Butte XXVII.

 

Victory at Sea
King Titus
Knee Deep Tanilla
4 Beans

 

Summit makes one called the great northern porter and its consistently great I suggest trying it out.

 

I have all of these rated above a 4:
King Titus - Maine Beer Co
Sierra Nevada Porter
Coffeehouse Porter - Berkshire Brewing Co
Pipeline Porter - Kona Brewing Co
Founders Porter
Mocha Porter - Rouge
Anchor Porter

 

Add to the above In the Baltic Porter category -
4 beans
Smuttynose

 

You're in Illinois don't sleep on Revolution's Eugene Porter, solid offering, price & availability don't let the can scare ya.

 

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald is a fantastic American Porter. Saw you're steering clear of Baltics, but got to say that 4Beans kicks Victory at Sea's ass if you're going the whole flavored porters route.

 

Doing these kind of exercises are usually illuminating (I enjoy them), but it's also key to not think of the exercise as personally definitive. Try the same "shootout" on another day and you might get different impressions. Have any of those beers on their own or just against one other beer and you're sure to have a different experience to a certain extent. Have fun with the browns - that's a good undervalued choice in my eyes.

 

I agree... All the selected beers were well received and I made notes of what I liked about each so I can go back and revisit when a particular hankering arises.

You are right that the browns are an undervalued beer. Today at the bottle shop I found it harder to find browns but brought these home:

Sam Smith's Nut Brown
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
SN Tumbler
Brooklyn Brown
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

I'm open to suggestions for others.

 

Upslope Brown Ale (Boulder, CO) if it distros to you.