Pilot Series #3 - Habanero Porter

On tap @ Neked Csak Dezso. Nose is chilli, earty and roasted notes, faint smoke. Taste follows the aroma with a long lasting, strong spicy finish. Light bodied with average carbo, but due to the strong spice it’s not that easy to drink. But otherwise it’s quite fine.

From tap. Pours dark brown to black. Huge tan head. Aroma is roasted dark malt. Roasted dark malt. Bitter. Chili bite. Dry and roasted dark malty finish.

Sampled at MEUG, Hungarian chilli porter with regularly shaped, medium thick, pale yellowish beige, moussy head and black robe with hazy mahogany edges. Aroma of cold tea, caramel, some dried chilli peppers but not too dominant, beef stock, wet dog, nutmeg, leather, damp earth, moist chocolate. Dried fruits in the onset, some fig, sweetish with a sourish undercurrent, beef stock-like meaty touch, softish carbo, chestnutty and caramelly malt sweet core with toasty bittering edges, soft herbal hop bitter ending with a lot of burning chilli heat - much more so than expected based on the aroma. A bit over the top in spiciness, but at least the heat distracts from the fact that this is, in its core, a porter too thin, too earthy and too umami-forward to be really great.

Tasting glass from 330 ml. bottle @ MEUG 2018. Dark brown to black, red hue, mocha head. Nose is dull, stale, vegetable chilli, wet dough, thin grainy. Taste is weird herbal, wet dog, bitter dark bread, rough bark, strong chili burn lingering, herbal,… Not the best one around.

0.33l bottle. Black body with basically no head. The aroma has a bit of chocolate and some pepper to it, but not much else. Taste of chocolate, some floral hops and chillies. The heat remains on the thogue for a while after the sip. Not bad, but watery a bit and lacks complexity.

Kitöltés után azonnal elillanó hab, majdem fekete, sötétbarna szín. Kávés, pörkölt malátás, aszalt gyümölcsös illat, némi paprikával. Íze kávés, pörkölt malátás, enyhe aszalt gyümölcsös jegyekkel és némi paprika aromával. A habanéro ott csíp ahol a chilinek kell, a nyelv hátsó részén, a torok elején. Könnyed, talán egy picit túlságosan is, enyhén szénsavas, enyhén kesernyés. Lehetne egy kicsivel fajsúlyosabb és a porteres jegyek is némileg erősebbek, mert így elvesznek a habanero mögött.

Bottle, 330 ml, courtesy of JFK10000. Shared with him and Max. Brown with small beige head. Habanero, burning in throat, caramel, malty. Somewhat watery. Too thin to support the chilli.

Tap at Kandalló Kézműves Pub, Budapest. Poured a hazy medium brown with a frothy off white head. The aroma is roasty caramel malt, earthy mineral light hop. The flavour is moderate liquorice bitter with a dominating spicy habanero chilli palate that consumes the beer. Medium bodied with average carbonation. Needs more body and the habanero was a little too much in a beer, even for a chilli head like myself.