Dégustée à l'été 2016 (De mes notes). .

355ml bottle. Pours a very dark clear brown colour with a thin beige head, no real lacing and short retention. Aroma of dark fruit, chocolate, coffee, caramel, roasted malt. Taste is exactly like the aroma, the malts are sweet and there’s a very mild bitterness. Mouthfeel is smooth, medium body.

Deep black with medium white head. Aroma is totally vanilla ice cream, some peach as well. Taste is very sweet and a little sourness. More vanilla in the finish, also nuts and cream. Very creamy and smooth. A little too sweet for me. Still not bad.

Bottle from Wegmans. Dark brown with a little bit of head, medium body. Caramel malt aroma, chocolate with coffee undertone taste. Mild malt finish, perfectly decent traditional Porter.

Tap. Dark brown color with amber highlight and a tan head. Aroma is cocoa powder, nutty, earthy. Taste is earthy, a bit roasted, molasses, quite light-bodied. Medium carbonation. Not too sweet. Feels quite archetypical and not too modern. Good.

Left Hand porter trying to connect with the style’s English origins. Moussy, pale greyish beige, medium thick head breaking quickly in the middle but well retaining on the edges and in a few thin veils of foam in the middle; deep dark bronze colour with ruby red hue, but fully translucent. Aroma of wet cocoa powder, fudge, some FFF (freshly fermented farmland), hint coffee grounds, milk chocolate, walnut shell, raisins, soggy brown bread, fresh fig, damp tree leaves, brown sugar, cold black tea somewhere, faint candied banana, elderberry, feeble suggestion of liquorish. Sweetish, rounded onset, fig, blackberry, raisin, soft carbo. Pleasantly ’fluffy’ and rounded mouthfeel with somewhat ’stinging’ carbonation, caramelly and nutty malt sweetness with a toasted bittering edge in the end but sweetness prevailing, though a slight ’dim’ sourishness goes through as well, preventing it from becoming too sweet; weak metallic note as well. Well-accomplished finish of ongoing malt sweetness, a tad chocolatey in the very end, paired with this pleasant toasted bittering edge and, all the way at the back, a hint of spicy, leafy hop bitterishness enhancing the toasted bitterness without taking over. I also get a glow of warming alcohol, which should not be the case in a beer below 7% ABV, but it remains subtle. This does come across as very English: Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter, Fuller’s London Porter or even Meantime London Porter spring to mind and if these English examples are to be considered as semi-archetypes of the contemporary English brown porter style after the style was resurrected from the dead, I can only say that this beer achieves its goal extremely well. It has a light metallic feel to it but that goes for other modern English brown porters as well, and the overall malt profile is very similar to what many more classically oriented English breweries would do with this style. In fact, had I tasted this blind, I’d even situate it in merry old England. Nicely done, convincing as a ’real’, i.e. good old-fashioned brown porter, rather than the often (too) stout-like examples you get from many other breweries across the craft brewing world.

Reddish black beer, thin white head. Malty coffee aroma. Flavour is similar, with a dash of chocolate, vanilla and some tart, fruity hop. Mellow, hoppy aftertaste.

Best by 03/21/15
This was poured into a mug.
The appearance was a nice looking dark brown close to black color with a one finger white foamy head that dissipated within about a minute. There was some light lacing sticking and then sliding down into the beer.
The smell started off with some sweet to roasty coffee to cocoa. Light dark sweet fruitiness rounds it all out.
The taste was mainly sweet with a big underscore of the bitter to roasty on the aftertaste and leading into the finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fairly decent sessionability about it. Carbonation runs fairly light allowing a decent stickiness all around.
Overall, I say this was a pretty good English Porter that I would have again.

12 oz bottle poured. Pours brown with a lasting fizz head. Grainy, roasted malt aroma. Flavor is a big chocolate kick up front, with some toast, and a sweet background. Subtle hops come in late. Very tasty, balanced porter. I’ll totally drink this again.