Northen Monk: Northen Star – Mocha Porter (England: Porter: 5.9% ABV)
Visual: Black. Moderate dark brown head.
Nose: Big bitter coffee. Charring. Smoke. Brown bread. Very bitter.
Body: Creamy. Slightly thin until it warms. Milky chocolate. Sweet milky coffee. Condensed cream. Soft treacle. More bitter coffee over time.
Finish: Condensed cream. Sugar dusting. Milky coffee. Milky chocolate. Slight treacle. Chocolate liqueur. Lactose. Bitter coffee and cocoa. Coffee liqueur.
Conclusion: Ok, I had to recalibrate my exceptions for this a few times while doing these notes – so, let’s look back at what we have and see how it all hangs together in the end.
First up – the aroma – bitter coffee as fuck. So, I thought I had a handle on this already. Let’s face it – it didn’t try to hide it – we have a super coffee dominated bitter porter on our hands. Job done. Notes over, right?
So, I took a sip. Then I took a few more as it too a few sips to build up – the first was a tad thin but it quickly gained a bit more weight and hit its stride as … well a condensed cream and milky chocolate sweet center. WTF? So, nothing like what I expected. This actually initially comes in too sweet with sugar dusting style dusted over it. It was ok, but seemed a bit unbalanced in the completely opposite way to the aroma. So, erm, ok, and this then followed on into the finish. So, the aroma was the odd point, now we have it all worked out, right?
The thing is, after drinking a bit more, and letting it warm, the bitter coffee came straight back in – riding above over the sweetness. Not removing it, but squatting bitter coffee and cocoa into the heart of the beer. I’m now 90% sure this beer is just fucking with me.
So, here I am, at the end of the beer – what do I think? Well, it is a tad over sweet – almost milk stout style – but generally it is a good one. A slight more subtle use of the sweetness would have made it a great contrast to the very bitter cofee and would have been a better beer. As is the coffee is very well expressed, and so – yeah – kind of the uber coffee take on a milk stout. Interesting – not a favorite but interesting. As always, depending on how much that ideas sounds good to you will depend on how much you will like it. You mileage may vary and all that.
Background: This is the last of the beers my mate got me from Honest Brew‘s as a present. Many thanks again. I may have not been quite 100% in the zone as I went to drink this. I say that as I took out my bottle opener to try and get into the can. Anyway… Drunk while listening to Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile – good background drinking music, and not one I’ve gone to for a while.
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