Sierra Madre : Ocho Reales Porter (Mexico: Porter: 5% ABV)
Visual: Dark black cherry to black. Thin brown head.
Nose: Fruitcake. Madeira and port mix. Blueberry. Figgy pudding. Tannins. Marzipan. Fruity. Almonds. Pencil shavings and sulphur eggs.
Body: Roasted bitterness. Slightly thin feel when cool. Chalk. Very light red wine notes. Tannins. Light figs. Liquorice. Light fruitcake.
Finish: Chalky. Roasted. Tannins/tea. Liquorice. Red wine. Dusty and mothball like. Light tart apple.
Conclusion: Ok, I definitely need to let this one warm up before doing a full opinion. Chilled this ends up very thin, with only a slight roasted bitter and chalky body and finish, but little else.
While I am waiting, let’s talk about the good parts so far – the aroma! Definitely not a traditional porter in style – it is closer to an ESB with strong red wine, fruitcake and dark fruit amongst the mix. While not porter like it still promised a fine beer, and far more than the chilled beer body experience delivered.
Ok, warmth has entered the beer, as ever warmth is the friend of the dark beer. It has helped. A little. It gains thickness and hints of the red wine and fruitcake that the aroma promised. However, as if it compensate, the finish becomes must and dusty as hell, a genuinely bad feeling at the end of the beer, and worse still one that lasts a long time.
Aside from that it does give some ESB like saving grace to the body, it is still very little like a porter outside of the roasted character, but it is more acceptable as a beer – there is actually a hint of a good beer trying to break out. However, this is one of the rare beers that, overall, I feel is actually pretty bad. It has a few redeeming points, the aroma for one, and it does have hints of promise of what it could be. Generally though, nope, this is a bad example of the style and a bad beer.
Background: I hope the brewery name is correct, I have found conflicting reports. Anyway, grabbed this from independent spirit, you don’t see many breweries from Mexico so I thought it was worth a try. Drunk while listening to a band I just found called “The Algorithm”, kind a mash up of metal and electronic, kind of weird but fun.
