For this week's #Beersaturday I'm going to be reviewing two flavored Porters. I generally don't like flavored beers but my options were limited at the store this week, so I decided to give them a go. Let's see how they fared.
Pecan Pie Porter
Brewery: Double Trouble Brewing Co
Origin: Toronto ON Canada
Style: Flavored Porter
Abv: 5.7%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: The can was a brown, turquoise and orange color, with big bubble lettering, dripping syrup and swirling hop vine imagery.
No information about the beer was listed on the back but its a fun and playful design and I kind of like it. It looked like a can meant for a dessert beer.
Color: The beer poured a deep chestnut brown color with a decent amount of mocha colored head on top. The foam was creamy and lasted some time. It also left a nice lacing down the glass.
Nose: The nose was sweet smelling with a strong vanilla aroma. I also noticed milk chocolate and generic roasted notes coming through. A little later I noticed a pleasant roasted nutty aroma coming through as the beer warmed to room temperature.
Taste: Some sweetness upfront but it was masked by a strong bitter finish that was long lasting. Vanilla and chocolate flavors again. I didn't get any fake extract flavors, which is good for me because I hate that.
Texture: Nicely carbonated with small sharp bubbles. Very smooth and silky underneath. Medium bodied mouthfeel.
Impression: I actually enjoyed this one which was somewhat of a surprise. It wasn't too sweet and didn't have any gross extract flavors that I noticed (a reason why I usually avoid flavored beers). The bitterness balancd out the sweet making it a decent drink. This one was good overall to me. I'd maybe drink it again in a pinch.
Tales from the Pumpkin Patch Porter
Brewery: Big Rig Brewery
Origin: Kanata ON Canada
Style: Flavored Porter
Abv: 5.8%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: This Halloween themed can has a pale yellow, orange and black color scheme, Jack-o-lantern imagery and spooky dripping font style.
A small blurb on the back tells a little bit about the beer. Something new and a little interesting is that the can glows in the dark.
I didn't notice it when I bought the beer but I'm glad that I spotted the novelty gimmick at home. This is the first glow in the dark beer can that I've seen. I let the florescent paint absorb some sun light and then brought it into a dark room to test it out. It worked really well as you can see but also didn't last long. The glow faded rapidly in the dark.
Overall, its a fun can design for sure. I like it!
Color: The beer poured a dark chestnut color with a flimsy tan head that dissipated rapidly. The lack of head made the beer look syrupy to me.
Nose: The beer smelled sweet with pumpkin spices in the background, predominantly cinnamon.
Taste: the taste was sweet in the begining with some mild tartness in the middle and not a whole lot of bitterness in the finish. Not very well balanced and more on the sweet side of the spectrum. Spiced flavors came through for me, cinnamon and maybe nutmeg and others that I couldn't pinpoint. The sweetness was very pronounced the more I drank it and was a bit much for me. It seemed to get stronger as I drank the beer. The spice flavor (mostly cinnamon) also came out more and more as the beer warmed to room temperature.
Texture: Big bubbly carbonation overtop a velvety mouthfeel underneath. Medium bodied.
Impression: This beer was okay but nothing special, like most pumpkin beers I've tried over the years. I generally avoid the pumpkin beers but the store I went to this time had a terrible selection of beers and I struggled to even find any that I wanted to purchase. Overall this one was too sweet for me and had too much cinnamon flavor. I wouldn't buy it again. Actually I think the can was the best part of this one.
