JW Lees: Manchester Star Ale (England: Porter: 7.3% ABV)
Visual: Very dark red to black. Large mound of froth with a caramel creamy look.
Nose: Earthy. Some coffee beans.
Body: Slight sour cream and chives. Bitter chocolate. Raisins and figs. Light earthiness and solid bitterness. Slight chocolate orange. Frothy texture. Cream. Very light toffee touches.
Finish: Raisins and earthy hops. Bitter chocolate dust. Milk.
Conclusion: Ok, I know JW lees are a bloody solid brewery. So I shouldn’t be surprised that this is a good beer. Yet I was and I don’t know why.
This beer has a wonderful smooth and creamy texture. I’ve been playing a lot with the craft beer end of the spectrum recently and so returning to a beer like this with all the extra thickness and weight as well as being smooth is very welcome. It just feels proper and welcoming.
The flavour is a rich chocolate but with good use of British hops to give an earthy growl, but without getting to the point where it is like drinking a mouthful of soil. Also it has a good variety to the flavour. Sweet and smooth with lots of chocolate and hints of toffee mixed with well balanced chunks of dark fruit. Then it uses a sour cream counterpoint in the Baltic porter style with careful subtlety. That element is used much lighter than most porters that I’ve seen it in and this careful craftsmanship makes it feel like a beer that has more flavour that some stouts or even imperial stouts.
However, for people that like the heavier intensity of flavours that come with going to Imperial Stouts (a la Speedway Stout) then you may not find this to your liking as it doesn’t go that route. This is all smooth edges and careful layers of flavour. In fact this is a very good example of how a strong porter differs from a weaker stout in how they express the flavours.
Apparently this recipe is over a hundred years old, which is a data point that confirms what I have always said – Traditional ales doesn’t mean dull. If you go back far enough you skip past all the low abv puritan attempts to make beer a bland thing, and return to the days of cannonballs of joy like this.
Here’s to history in a glass. A fine beer.
Background: This was third and final beer I picked up during the time when Sainbury’s were having lots of new beers to see what was popular. Yes I know that was ages ago. I have a very packed cupboard, it takes me a while to get around to these things. Anyway, I aimed to get a range of beer styles, but based on me not really paying attention I ended up with three porter to stouts style beers. Oops. I thought this one was going to be a bitter. In my defence I was in a rush and only glanced at the labels. This beer is based on a recipe from 1884 – sometimes it’s great living in county with a decent beer history and the record keeping to take advantage of it.
