Day 19: Winterporter

 

Winterporter

Origin: Brouwerij de Molen (Bodegraven, the Netherlands)

Style: Porter

ABV: 6.7%

IBU: Not Listed

Description: Well… here it is: the review I did not want to write. The de Molen Winterporter should have been a wonderful beer from a lovely Dutch craft brewery but sadly I got an infected beer. I suspect acetaldehyde but cannot be sure. I got green apples and a real sour flavour – not what the brewer was intending, I am sure. Frankly it’s taken an offering from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society to repair the damage to my palate.

The important point is this: bad bottle aside, I do not lose faith in de Molen as they have made some fantastic beers before and I know will do in future. The wine world is ripe with corked bottles so I can easily forgive this dud. I look forward to talking with other testers to see what they thought. -C.B.

 

Day 17: Marmalade Porter

Marmalade Porter

Origin: Wold Top Brewery (Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK)

Style: Porter

ABV: 5%

IBU: Not Listed

Description: On the Eastern coast of Northern England sits a 600 acre farm that has been worked by the same family for generations. The 80s and 90s were a hard time to be in the agriculture business, so the current generation looked at their options for diversification. What did they decide on? Beer!! It seems like they made a good choice. Wold Top Brewery now produces an extensive line of award-winning cask and bottle-conditioned ales that have found distribution all over the world.

This offering from Wold Top Brewery is a porter produced from barley grown on their land and malted on site. Water is drawn from a borehole and chalk filtered to feed their brewhouse. Their source of hops isn’t mentioned in any of the literature I’ve found, but all of their ingredients certainly combine to produce a fresh, clean-drinking brew.

The pour is typical of a porter, with a thin creamy head that quickly dissipates to rim the surface of the brew. The colour is a very dark brown with amber and gold hues towards the edges.

Although the body is thinner than I prefer on a porter, it does produce more than its fair share of aromatics and flavour notes. Claiming to be triple hopped, I’ve found a decent amount of citrus hops wafts from the glass accompanied by a malty sweetness. On the palate the bitter bite is most noticeable, the hops playing well with roasted coffee and chocolate notes that border on burnt. Citrus also plays a role here, though it is quite muted.  My least favourite trait of this beer is the finish, which I find quick and dry without any lingering tastes to hang my hat on.

The best food pairing for this would be a dessert, preferable creamy and sweet. Crème brûlée would do nicely, or a generous slice of chocolate cake with creamy layers and a wafer crunch. Perhaps I shouldn’t write these posts while hungry. Yum, beer and cake.

Overall I was a little disappointed in this beer. It just doesn’t seem to have any legs to really stand it up as a quality beverage. There are certainly interesting tastes there, but overall it lacks punch. It does hold the distinction of being a certified gluten free beer, as does a good portion of the Wold Top line, so I am interested to try the other two offerings on Legacy Liquor Store shelves, the Against The Grain bitter and the Scarborough Fair IPA. Or, if you are interested to try a few other porters, I would suggest the Driftwood Blackstone Porter or Samuel Smith Famous Taddy Porter, both nice examples of the style. – C.L.