Alfred's Porter
Barley John's Brewpub in New Brighton, Minnesota, United States 🇺🇸
Porter - Imperial Regular|
Score
6.84
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JK (8140) reviewed Alfred's Porter from Barley John's Brewpub 20 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
Baltic in name only. Light coffee aroma. Black with a very small tan head. The dominant flavor is bitter coffee with lighter chocolate. Tastes like a dry stout as it warms.
Ungstrup (52101) reviewed Alfred's Porter from Barley John's Brewpub 20 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
An opaque black beer with a disappearing brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of alcohol, over ripe fruits, and prunes. The flavor is sweet with notes of prunes, chocolate, toffee, and grass.
Clarkvv (16327) reviewed Alfred's Porter from Barley John's Brewpub 20 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
2/22/05 bottling from Footbalm, the King of Traders, thanks so much!
Opaque black, as all have said, with some deep, deep magenta highlights on the edges, barely perceptible through the black pit that is this beer. Heavy coating of the glass, great lacing. Swirling the glass provides a thin cover of tan head, but with no retention. Aroma is full of dark candi-like sugars, cotton candy and bubble gum, a touch of alcohol and lots of pleasant vinousness that is redolent of the Dark Knight I had months ago. Light unmalted barley notes, or something similar to that, emerge as it warms, with dry, black licorice in there too.
Flavor, to me, was just a little too much. Massive amounts of sugar immediately take over the palate. The body is brilliant, I can’t fault that; just wonderfully full and coating. But the sugars are everywhere. Sweet cotton candy, to the extreme. Lots of chewy anise on the end, like the Ricola herbal drops on which I used to suck. Warming effect from the alcohol was quickly noted. Flavor is dark fruits, silky oats and dry barley vinousness not stouty roastiness and hops. And for that I applaud them, this really wasn’t a mislabeled Imperial Stout, as Jeff points out. But in the end, I have to search too long to pull these flavors out, the sugar is just too overwhelming. If they toned down the sugar a good deal, I could really get in to this stuff. I think the barrel aging of it really cuts the sweetness, which is why I much preferred the Dark Knight. This was the only beer I drank all night, so that my palate would be fresh and I sipped it slowly over the course of an hour. As an afterthought, I prefer dry port, dry sherry and dry wines, so take that for what it’s worth as well.