English Porter - Tasting Notes

This was an English Porter I brewed up back in September based on a historic recipe published on the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog: 1915 Courage Porter.  It is pretty simple recipe that features the use of Invert Syrup like most of the old English beers seem to.  It was fairly smooth brewday except for the need to extend the boil by 20 min due to having a bit more wort collected than was expected.  I ended up with a 5 points higher on gravity than expected and ended up with a 4.9% ABV beer rather than the 4.2% I'd intended.

It was nice fermentation with S04 yeast which is the Whitbread strain the recipe called for.  I let it sit on the yeast cake for 4 weeks.

I kegged the beer at 12-13 PSI and have been drinking it for the last couple weeks.  I've enjoyed having it on tap.  It has carbonated up nicely at this point so it's time to do a tasting (while it lasts).

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Roast, coffee, and a bit of chocolate aroma most prominent.  Has a slight fruity character as well and maybe a bit of a sweet smell
• Appearance:
• Black/dark brown.  Pours with a 1 finger of tan head when gentle with the beer (quite a bit thicker if agressive).  Foam fades to a thin rick after a couple minutes.  Leaves a little lacing
• Flavor:
• Roasty flavor up front which becomes more of a coffee flavor in mid palate.  A bit of sweet malt character on the finish.  Has a medium level of bitterness on the finish as well which balances the malt pretty nicely.  The roasty and malty flavors linger for a while on the palate after swallowing.  Get some chocolate in the finish along with a slight fruitiness.  Slight alcohol flavor to it
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Fairly dry and pretty crisp with the roast and bitterness. This is makes it pretty easy drinking and calls you to take another sip
• Overall:
• I really enjoy a roasty flavored beer and this is a very enjoyable one.  It think the balance of this recipe is quite nice - has a small bit of sweetness that prevents the roast and hop bitterness from becoming abrasive but is by no means a sweet beer.  Makes for very good drinkability.  There isn't anything extraordinary about the beer but it is boldly flavored and offers a good amount of complexity to go along with it's drinkability (quite a bit like a Guinness I would say).