If stinking hot July is the month for wheat beers and the end of summer is the time for sour fruit beers, then the end of September has to herald the slowing down of my sour beer studies and the beginning of the season of porters. Why? First, they go with stew and they go in stew and no one eats stew before the fall comes. Maybe crazy people do but that could be, in part, why they are crazy. Second, they are the sweater of the beer world. Not the parka and not the it's-too-damn-cold-to-go-out of the beer calendar, just the sweater. And look at that selection: Maine, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Russia, Poland, Norway and a bunch more. It is a style that travels well.
But, really, doesn't it all boils down to bigger than a brown ale and less than a stout? Sure there is more to know but that will do, right? That and the sweater image. Hey - I know there's more - we've discussed porter a lot and even delved into the particular history of the style. But now that the beer blog universe has exploded, do I really need to tell you more about something of which Greg has neatly summarized, which Martyn can draw in fine detail or which Ron can maniacally drill into the farthest corners or a hundred others might add to? I don't know. I am sure of the four of us and most of the others I am most likely to be somewhat off. Yet porter makes its demands and I shall sip and type. It's time.
First up is Black Hole, from Weyerbacher of Easton, Pennsylvania. This beer pours a deep mahogany with a fine cream mocha head. There is some aroma of dark chocolate and coffee but it is not strong. In the mouth, while there is plenty of chocolate, espresso and dry cocoa with a bit of molasses, it's also a tiny sour, a bit tangy and a little sharp from a pretty confident hand at the hops. If this beer reminds you of anything about porter, it's the role that the hops play to provide the bitter rather than the roasted toastiness in a stout. And that role of the tang. At 7%, it's only midway to heavy. Plenty of BAer respect.
Porter season is upon you. Govern yourselves accordingly.
Comments
Steve - September 21, 2007 5:47 AM
You got some of Kjetil's beer! Enjoy it. He is doing some good things over there in Norway, though it appears the perverse legislative environment is causing him some headaches.
I'd also like to let you know that there will be a beer festival here in Japan on the 30th September and we will be taking pause to pay tribute to MJ. I think you were keeping track of international sites that will be joining in.
Stonch - September 21, 2007 12:57 PM
I am surprised and more than a little disappointed that Canadians call autumn "fall" too.
:-(
Ron Pattinson - September 21, 2007 1:57 PM
Funny you should mention Porter. You've probably noticed it's one of my many obsessions (counting the number of storeys in tall buildings is another). I just happen to have have been ferreting around in the archive again this week.
The theory is that Porter was killed off by WW I and restrictions on the production of dark malts. That certainly wasn't what happened at Whitbread. They brewed Porter all through the war. It was the only one of their Porters and Stouts that was in production over the whole period 1914-1918. Between April 1917 and April 1918, Whitbread only made two beers in their Porter brewery: Imp (I think suggesting that stands for "Imperial Stout" isn't too outrageous) and Porter. In this period the Porter had an OG of 1048. After April 1918, they swapped to Porter and LS (ny guess: London Stout). Porter started at 1039, hit a low of 1036 in December 1918, but by February 1919 was back to 1043.
Three pre-war Stouts - S, SS and SSS weren't brewed between April 1917 and May 1919.
So it wasn't Porter that got messed up by the war but Stout. At least at Whitbread.
Porter did suffer post-WW I. By theearly 1930's it was on its last legs and, at just 1029, was one of Whitbread's weakest beers.