Storm Brewing’s Coffee Porter
“A seasonal ale, brewed using imported black malt and dark roasted mountain grown Arabica coffee beans. STORM Coffee Porter is a roasty, dark, top fermented brew with a subtle coffee aroma and a pleasantly mild palate.”
This one’s Storm Brewing’s seasonal brew, available as a Christmas treat in St. John’s, Newfoundland. If you’re looking for this you better watch the liquor stores closely in December When Coffee Porter comes out it’s in limited quantity and sells out very quickly. Storm brewing certainly has a serious following amongst the younger crowd in St. John’s.
I’m sampling this one from a 341 mL tall bottle, unlike the stubbies of the previous years. It’s also available in 650 mL bottles and on tap at a few bars in St. John’s, such as The Duke and The Ship. The bottle is well presented, clean with simple with a high quality sticker, and storm’s typical label. It pours up a dark slightly transparent brown, with a light brown head, that dissipates incompletely and rather quickly, leaving some light lacing. Carbonation is light, with tiny bubbles slowly rising to the top.
The aroma here is of fresh brewed coffee, with a notes of dark chocolate. I also get a note of salted cracker that I don’t feel is very at home in the nose.
This storm brew has a flavour of coffee mixed with a roasted component, mixed with further subtle chocolates, as in the nose. The back-end is slightly sour, lacking any pronounced hops, with only a touch of bitter. The palate is on the light and watery side and is a bit of a disappointment. As with all of Storm’s beers the flavours are organic and real. I could pick out one of their beers from a mile away. No cheap adjuncts here!
I think it’s a great beer to pair with sweets. Candy, chocolate, cake and anything minty will go very nicely with this beer. Makes sense to put it out over the holidays.
Overall, I’ll look forward to this every year, enjoying one with the multitude of cakes and candy I consume, or having a pint on tap with a crowd of friends at The Ship, over the holidays.
Storm Brewing’s website. (…I notice they’re big Rush fans!)
