Next Session: Ich Hätte Gerne Ein Bier, Bitte

August 29, 2017 By Jay Brooks

For our 127th Session, our host will be Alistair Reece, who writes Fuggled. For his topic, he’s chosen a timely topic: Oktoberfest Beers. This year, Oktoberfest in Munich begins on September 16 and takes place until October 3. So it’s the season for Oktoberfest beers, so it makes perfect sense to write about them this month.

Oktoberfest-logo-2016

Here’s the full description of this Session’s topic:

Tis the season!! Right about now breweries and beer shops are groaning under the weight of their autumnal offerings, and so for this month’s Session, the 127th of it’s ilk, we turn to one of those autumnal offerings, Oktoberfest lagers.
“Oktoberfest, in September?!” I hear you exclaim, but as I am sure you know, Oktoberfest begins every year in the middle of September, this year on the 16th, and finishes in the eponymous month. So what better way to start the month it all begins in Bavaria than to hunt down a load of beers labelled as ‘Oktoberfest’ or ‘Festbier’, or in some cases both, and have a little mix and match tasting session?
Feel free to dress up for your tasting, dirndls, lederhosen, that Australian backpacker outfit you keep in the back of your wardrobe for special occasions. Hire yourself an oompah band, play the birdy song, and generally get into the spirit of celebrating for the 117th time the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Whip out the grill and buy all the bratwurst you can find, proper bratwurst that is, from Germany. Shout “O’zapft is!” at the top of your lungs…you get the idea.

oktoberfest-01

Crack open your bottles of Märzen and Oktoberfest beers, or “O’zapft is” and write about what you found. To participate in the September Session, on or before Friday, September 1, 2017 — yes that’s this Friday, in just three days — write a post and leave a comment to the original announcement.”

oktoberfest-05

Next Session: Cutting Through The Haze

July 31, 2017 By Jay Brooks

For our 126th Session, our host will be Gail Williams‏, who is one-half of the team writing Beer by BART. For her topic, she’s chosen a juicy topic: Hazy, Cloudy, Juicy: IPA’s Strange Twist. “The topic will be a still-emerging – though no longer new – unofficial beer style. This kind of beer has gotten so much buzz (and some mocking) in the last decade and a half that it’s surprising it has not come up on The Session yet. New England, Vermont-inspired, Northeastern, Hazy, Juicy or whatever you like to call these low-bitterness, hop flavorful beers, they are being made everywhere now and people are definitely buying them.”

juicy-glass

Here’s Gail’s full description of her topic:

Any approach is welcome. Choose an idea or find your own:
The encounter: Do you remember your first NEIPA – if so, what was that like? Details, please. And how has your perception of the style changed over time?
Or the name game: What style name do you prefer to describe the trend … why choose that one, and why are the other names unworthy or short-sighted? Does “IPA” still apply in a way that’s helpful to drinkers?
Or the crusade: Testify! Exactly why do you love or hate these beers? How you could explain your stance to somebody who disagrees with you. Could you/ how would you convert them to your point of view?
Or setting standards and defining flaws: What makes a classic example of the style? What makes an IPA simply an unfiltered dry-hopped American IPA without much clarity instead of part of this style? What about the sweeter “milkshake” IPAs – part of this style definition or something else? What flaws make for weak examples of the style? Or maybe, where should the numbers be for this style – abv, ibu, color and clarity, etc.? What tasting instructions would you give to judges of these beers?
Or take another angle, tell another tale! Have you been writing about these beers for several years now and watched them evolve? Know something cool about the making of these beers, the people behind them, their spread to the UK and Europe?
Choose any angle and make it yours – they’re just ideas to get us thinking, not a questionnaire. And if you have zero interest in such a beer, just say why in the fullest detail. Have fun with it!

juicyipa

To participate in the August Session, on or before Friday, August 4, 2017 — yes that’s this Friday, in just four days — write a post and either leave a comment to the original announcement, “or to get a little more buzz going, tweet your link with the hashtag #thesession or alert [her] directly @beerbybart on Twitter.”

two-roads-juicy

Next Session: Getting SMaSHed

June 20, 2017 By Jay Brooks

For our 125th Session, our host will be Mark Lindner‏, who writes By the Barrel: Bend Beer Librarian. For his topic, he’s chosen SMaSH Beers, or single malt and single hop beers, which he was reminded of by his local Bend, Oregon, annual SMaSH Fest, part of Central Oregon Beer Week, which happened a few weekends ago. Between that, and brewing his first batch a beer — yes, it will be a SMaSH beer — he “jokingly asked [him]self if single malt and single hop beers can be considered a “thing” (trendy, etc.) until we have coffee-infused, barrel-aged, and fruit SMaSH beers. Maybe we do; [he has] not seen them yet though.”

2016-SMaSh-Fest

But here’s Mark’s full description of his topc:

Here are some potential directions you could consider:
Answer my question above. Are they trendy? When would they be considered to be trendy? Have you seen/had a variant (x-infused, fruit, …) single malt and single hop beer? More than one?
What purpose do SMaSH beers fill? For you, personally, and/or generally.
Do they fill a niche in any beer style space? One that matters to you? Are they a “style,” however you define that?
Have you ever had an excellent one? As a SMaSH beer or as a beer, period.
Do you brew them?
Are there any styles besides pale ale/IPA that can be achieved via a single malt and single hop beer? (How about achieved versus done quite well.)
Do they offer anything to drinkers, especially non-brewing drinkers?
I consider this to be wide open and am interested in your thoughts, whatever they are, regarding SMaSH beers. I sincerely hope this is not too limiting of a topic in the number of people who have tasted and/or brewed single malt and single hop beers.
Resources
Some resources–mostly brewing-focused, sorry–about single malt and single hop beers:
BREWING
Keeping it Simple with SMaSH Brewing [AHA]
Single-Malt Brewing [All About Beer]
Brew Your Own 20/4 Jul/Aug 2014 Single Malt and Single Hop 55-64
Zymurgy 40/2 Mar/Apr 2017 Uncommon Taste of Place SMaSH recipe 35
STYLE GUIDELINES
Neither BJCP 2015, NHC 2017, Brewers Association 2017, World Beer Cup 2016, or GABF 2017 have anything on them based on searches for “smash” and “single malt.”
FOR GENERAL BEER DRINKER (NON-BREWER)
I did try to find anything specifically directed more to the drinker/general consumer rather than the brewer but I could not find any. I would be interested in anything along that vein any of you have seen.
For instance, neither Mosher Tasting Beer, 2nd ed. or Alworth, The Beer Bible or Oliver, ed., The Oxford Companion to Beer have anything on SMaSH beer, although single-hopped does make an appearance in some of these.

hulk-smash

To participate in the July Session, on or before Friday, July 7, 2017, write a post and either leave a comment to the original announcement, e-mail your post’s link to mark . r . lindner @gmail . com or tweet him at @bythebbl.

Bock To Basics

February 9, 2017 By Jay Brooks

For our 121st Session, our host will be Jon Abernathy, who writes The Brew Site. For his topic, he’s chosen Bock!, which again sounds simple enough, but I’ll just let Jon explain what he means:

The month of March heralds the start of spring, and March 20 is even National Bock Beer Day. So Bockbiers seemed like a natural fit for the month!
Don’t feel constrained to simply write a review of a Bock beer, though I’m certainly interested to read any reviews that come it. Some other ideas to consider:
Dig into into the history of the style—their ties to Einbeck, the differences in the development of Bocks and Doppelbocks, and so on.
Do any of your local breweries brew a Bock-styled beer? Seek it out and write about it.
Alternatively, interview your local brewer who brewed that beer; get their take on the style and why/how they brewed it the way they did.
Have you ever attended Bockfest in Cincinnati, Ohio? It just so happens to take place the first weekend of March—write a review for The Session!
There are already the styles of traditional Bock, Doppelbock, Maibock, Eisbock, Weizenbock (and Helles Bock and Dunkles Bock in the BJCP) guidelines. Just for fun, invent a new style of Bock and describe it.
Have you homebrewed a Bock or similar style? Tell us about it, and anything you learned brewing this lager style at home.
Bock puns!

bock-roman-goddess-Ohio

To participate in the March Session, on or before Friday, March 3, 2017, post your thoughts on Bock beer. Either comment on the original announcement or via Twitter or Facebook. Jon’s Twitter handle is @brewsite.

Eckert-and-Winters-Bock-1877

What Can Brown Do For You?

January 19, 2017 By Jay Brooks

For our 120th Session, our host will be Joe Tindall, who writes The Fatal Glass of Beer. For his topic, he’s chosen Brown Beer, which sounds simple enough, but I’ll just let Joe explain what he means:

The colour brown has certain connotations, some of which I won’t dwell on. But used in reference to beer, it can signify a kind of depressing old fashioned-ness – to refer to a traditional bitter as ‘brown’ seems to suggest it belongs to a bygone corduroy-trousered era. As breweries who pride themselves on their modernity focus on beers that are either decidedly pale or unmistakably black, the unglamorous brown middle ground is consistently neglected.
So for Session 120, let’s buck the trend and contemplate brown beer. This might be brown ale, or the aforementioned English bitter; it could be a malty Belgian brune, a dubbel or a tart oud bruin; even a German dunkel might qualify.

In mid-2015, I was Thinking About Beer Color, so it could be fun to restrict that to just one family of color, the browns. There certainly are a lot of beers that fit into that range. What’s your take on the narrow band on the beer color rainbow. To participate in February’s Session, on or before Friday, February 3, 2017, post your thoughts on what brown has done for you. Just comment on the original announcement or via Twitter. Joe’s Twitter handle is @FatalGlass.

brown-beer-glass

Session #119: The Discomfort Of Burning Mouth Beer

January 10, 2017 By Jay Brooks

chili-pepper
For our 119th Session, our host is Alec Latham, who writes Mostly About Beer …. For his topic, he’s chosen Discomfort Beer, by which he means a beer which initially tasted funny, or odd, or off, or something, but which later became a favorite. Or maybe it didn’t. I’m not sure if I’m explaining that very well, so I’ll just let Alec take over and describe what he means:

What was your first ever taste of beer like? For me, it was like chilled copper coins mixed with tonic water and was disgusting. This is a process us committed beer drinkers can revisit every time we try something new.
A few years ago, I visited a pub in Pimlico called the Cask and Kitchen. There was a beer called Wild Raven by Thornbridge Brewery. Making assumptions based on the title, I ordered a pint as I love stout. I remember opening the sluices and then seizing up. Something wasn’t right. It had the chocolatey flavour of a stout but there was an intruder – lemon rind hissed in my nostrils and tainted my palate. Citrus grappled with the roast malt. Was it supposed to taste like this? Was it infection? Detergent? I spent some time staring at the floor in a suspended double-take.
That was my first ever Black IPA and at the time I wasn’t sure. Initially, I didn’t like it but whilst deciding whether or not to return it to the bar I kept giving it the benefit of the doubt. The dislike diminished. The acceptance grew. The pint gradually drained.
Black IPA is now one of my favourite styles but it could have gone the other way.
And does a Black IPA still get me blinking at the floor in a state of disquiet? No. Neither does the astringent character of Brett nor the dry bite of Lambic. All styles have been comprehensively “locked in”. Ultimately, familiarity devours discomfort.
For Session 119 I’d like you to write about which/what kind of beers took you out of your comfort zones. Beers you weren’t sure whether you didn’t like, or whether you just needed to adjust to. Also, this can’t include beers that were compromised, defective, flat, off etc because this is about deliberate styles. It would be interesting to see if these experiences are similar in different countries.
I think this could be a good archive for people researching fads, the origins of styles and the dearths of others – but especially how new ones were initially perceived.
Over the past year I’ve had a black barley wine, a braggot, a rye wine, a seaweed and cloudberry Gose, a beer made with Saki yeast and several made with Champagne yeast. I’ve sipped stout with Tonka beans, drank mulled lager and many tea beers – some with the tea complementing the hops – others completely replacing them. This has also been a year where 9 ABV hop-forward beers have become standard (from the UK perspective).
Some of the above I loved, others I liked and some I hated. What remains to be seen is which will catch on and which are just brief social media cameos.

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The beer that brings me the most discomfort I first tried in the mid-1990s. It was Ed’s Cave Creek Chili. Every bottle has a whole chili pepper inside of it. Why? Besides being novel, and eye-catching, some people — many people — like hot and spicy food. I am not one of those people, which immediately puts me at a disadvantage. It came across my desk as the chain beer buyer for Beverages & more. And so I tried it, and instantly regretted it. And still do to this day. Besides the pain of the barrage of hot and spicy flavors, these beers completely ruin me for any other beer I might want to drink, or really anything I might to eat too. Basically, it makes me unable to taste anything else for a period of time, and not just a few seconds; more like minutes, sometimes well over an hour.

Of course, we brought it in. Just because I don’t like something shouldn’t mean others wouldn’t want to try it. And there was some obvious appeal for people who like that sort of thing, and it sold reasonably well, probably to just the sort of person who loves four-alarm (or is it five-alarm now?) chili or ghost peppers. People who must go to the extremes, who never met a challenge they wouldn’t try.

The beer is still around, though it’s now called Cave Creek Chili Beer, and is brewed in Mexico. As far as I know, it was the first modern chili beer. It was certainly the first one I ever tried. And they appear to even be growing in popularity. Chili Beer was in a subgroup for GABF and World Beer Cup judging, but recently were broken out into their own category. That only happens if they’re getting a growing number of entries each year. I always bow out of judging that category.

To be fair, I don’t like hot or spices in anything, food or liquid. I am unabashedly a spice wuss. I grew up in rural Amish country Pennsylvania, and like to joke that my family only used two spices: salt and lard. But that’s not far off, as most of the dishes I remember eating were fairly bland; corn pie, meatloaf, casseroles, stews, potato soup, stuff with very few spices. Maybe it was just my Mom, but most of her recipes came from other family members, so I don’t think so. Anyway, to this day I don’t even eat mustard or mayonnaise, no pepper, never touch any Indian food, and will eat only the plainest Mexican fare. After over twenty years, my wife will still hand me something, saying it’s not too hot, and I’ll gag from the spiciness. Of course, this usually makes her laugh, so maybe she’s been doing it on purpose all this time.

But that aside, I don’t think that beer should compete with my food, or even my tongue, for attention. It can wash down and compliment or even contrast my food, but if it renders me unable to taste the next bite, then to my way of thinking it’s not doing its job. It should also be pleasant and ultimately enjoyable. And burning the inside of my mouth has never accomplished that, even though I realize that is actually a goal for some people.

But using any more than the barest amount of chili peppers usually results in it overpowering whatever the base style of beer is, effectively removing its beeriness. I have the same issue with many barrel-aged beers, when they take on so much of the barrel character, or whatever had been in the barrel previously, that its essence is gone, having lost its beeriness in the process. If I want bourbon, I’ll just drink bourbon. In any flavored beer, the adjunct or wood should add to the beer, but not mask, remove or overpower its essential beeriness, otherwise it becomes something else entirely. And for almost every chili pepper beer that’s what happens. I have had one or two examples where it was subtle enough that it did just add to the flavors and not overwhelm your senses, but that’s rare enough that it’s an exception rather than a degree of that type of beer. The majority, I feel, want to hurt me, and wear that goal like a badge of honor, daring me to try it. I don’t think of drinking beer as an endurance test, something to make it through, or a challenge to meet.

cave-creek-chili-beer-steaming

So unlike Alec’s experience with Black IPAs, or many people, including myself, warming to a new type of beer, chili beer seems like a love it or hate it kind of beer, with little ground in the middle. And you won’t be surprised to learn I hate them. How could there be any middle ground? Maybe your tolerance for spiciness increases over time, but that has not been my personal experience. My wife has been trying for over twenty years, as did many girlfriends before that. And while I do, believe it or not, eat many more foods today than I did when I was a child and in the intervening years, many people are still shocked at how picky I am and usually chuckle at what I consider to be too spicy. C’est la vie.

So maybe I could, through a concerted effort, patent sampling, building up a tolerance over time, learn to better appreciate chili beers. Then what? They’d still be too much for everyday consumption. I can’t imagine a scenario or situation where that’s a beer I’d ever reach for willingly. What occasion would be appropriate to drink something that will burn my mouth and cause me to be unable to taste anything else? Maybe it’s pure hedonism on my part, but I don’t want to have to work at enjoying a beer. A good beer should, at the very least, just be enjoyable on its own, part and parcel of its beeriness. That is, and rightly should be what beeriness means: something delicious that you want to drink, and is enjoyable during and afterwards, or something that does not cause any discomfort.

But Now, God Knows, Anything Gose

September 23, 2016 By Jay Brooks

For our 116th Session, our host will be Derrick Peterman, who writes Ramblings of a Beer Runner. For his topic, he’s chosen Anything Gose, asking everyone to write about the German sour beer style Gose.

Rittergute Gose Labels

Here’s his full description of the topic:

I choose the Gose style in particular since it can be approached in so many different ways. Want to talk about the history of the Gose? How about how American breweries are taking this style and running wild with it with different spice and fruit additions? How else has the Gose manifested itself outside its German homeland? Is the Gose here to stay or will it go the way of the Black IPA, once the hot style but slowly becoming a largely irrelevant curiosity? (OK, that might not be your opinion of the Black IPA, but you get the idea.) Of course, we’re all on the look-out for a good Gose, so if there are any you particularly like, we’d love to hear about them.

AnythingGose_HalfBBLKegCap

We know “Times have changed, and “Good authors too who once knew better words, Now only use four-letter words Writing prose. Anything goes.” Or rather, Anything Gose. So on or before Friday, October 7, let’s wax lyrically about gose. Music optional. Post your contribution at the original announcement or e-mail your link to Derrick at photon.dpeterman[at]gmail(dot)com. And remember. “If driving fast cars you like, If low bars you like, If old hymns you like, If bare limbs you like, If Mae West you like, Or me undressed you like, Why, nobody will oppose. When ev’ry night the set that’s smart is in-Truding in nudist parties in Studios. Anything goes.”

broadway_anything_goes_650X370

Apropos of nothing, I love the title because it’s play on the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes,” a personal favorite, and the only show I’ve done twice in my theatre geek days.

Here’s a great performance of the song “Anything Goes,” although only really just part of it, from the 2011 Tony Awards.

Session #109: Loving Porter

March 4, 2016 By Jay Brooks

For our 109th Session, our host is Mark Lindner, who is the Bend Beer Librarian, and writes the By the Barrel in Bend, Oregon. For his topic, he’s chosen the beer style Porter, and wants us to explore what he calls a “highly variable style.” Jon goes on to explain what he means by that in his announcement for the March Session:

porter

Porter
“The history of porter and the men who made it is fascinating, for it deals with the part that beer has played in the development of Western Culture. Conversely, of course, much of porter’s growth was the result of profound changes in the nature of British society. It is also a microcosm of how our industries have developed; events in porter’s history explain the structure of the modern brewing industry, not only in Britain, but in the other major Western countries.
Porter is intimately tied in with the Industrial Revolution, in which Britain led the world. Through the growth it enabled the brewers to achieve, it was instrumental in the development and technological application of a number of important scientific advances” (Foster, Porter, 17).
I am not talking about your long dead relative’s porter—although you might be—but about all of the variations currently and previously available. Hey, feel free to write about the porter of the future or some as-yet-unrecognized sub-style of porter.
There are English porters, Brown porters, Robust porters, American porters, Baltic porters, Imperial porters, Smoked porters, barrel-aged variants of most of the preceding, and so on.
With as many variations as there are it is hard to believe that porter is perhaps a neglected style. Then again, it did disappear for a while [see Foster, Porter, and others]. Of 14 beer people asked about overrated and underrated styles three of them said porter was most underrated and no one suggested it as overrated in our current market climate.
I would like you to sit down with one or more porters of your choosing. Pay a few minutes attention to your beer and then use that as a springboard to further thoughts on the style.

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One of Mark’s suggestions was to “[c]onstruct a resource along the lines of Jay Brooks’ Typology style pages,” so I figured the easiest thing to do this month was actually that. I chose Robust Porter for no better reason than I like them.

Robust Porter

Robust Porter is part of a family of beer, Porters, for which I have a personal bias. My son is named Porter. But it’s also a favorite style because I love the chocolate and sometime coffee notes that are usually smoother and less harsh than stouts. Deschutes Black Butte Porter was probably the one that really helped me love the style, but Anchor Porter and St. Bridget’s Porter from Great Divide are also early favorites.

What follows is information about robust porter, collected from a variety of sources. If you know of any additional resources about this type of beer, please let me know.

History

A stronger, more aggressive version of pre-prohibition porters and/or English porters developed in the modern craft beer era. Historical versions existed, particularly on the US East Coast, some of which are still being produced. This style describes the modern craft version. Note: This is the history for “American Porter,” which in 2015 replaced “Robust Porter.”
(BJCP¹)

Origin:

A Comparison of Style Ranges

Source	SRM	ABV	O.G.	F.G.	IBU
BJCP¹ (20A) American	22-40	5-6.5%	Varies	1.008-1.016	25-50
Brewery DB	20-30	6.3-7.5%	Varies	1.018-1.024	25-40
GABF² (83) Robust	20-35	4.4-6%	1.045-1.060	1.008-1.016	25-40
Periodic Table⁷ (48)	30-40	4.8-6%	1.050-1.065	1.012-1.016	25-45
WBC⁶ (75) Robust	30+	5.1-6.6%	1.045-1.1060	1.008-1.016	25-40

Yeast

Ale	Hybrid	Lager	Belgian
Brettanomyces	Lactobacillus	Pediococcus	Other

BJCP Description: 20A. American Porter¹

Overall Impression: A substantial, malty dark beer with a complex and flavorful dark malt character.

Aroma: Medium-light to medium-strong dark malt aroma, often with a lightly burnt character. Optionally may also show some additional malt character in support (grainy, bready, toffee-like, caramelly, chocolate, coffee, rich, and/or sweet). Hop aroma low to high, often with a resiny, earthy, or floral character. May be dry-hopped. Fruity esters are moderate to none.

Color Range

Appearance: Medium brown to very dark brown, often with ruby- or garnet-like highlights. Can approach black in color. Clarity may be difficult to discern in such a dark beer, but when not opaque will be clear (particularly when held up to the light). Full, tan-colored head with moderately good head retention.

Flavor: Moderately strong malt flavor usually features a lightly burnt malt character (and sometimes chocolate and/or coffee flavors) with a bit of grainy, dark malt dryness in the finish. Overall flavor may finish from dry to medium-sweet. May have a sharp character from dark roasted grains, but should not be overly acrid, burnt or harsh. Medium to high bitterness, which can be accentuated by the dark malt. Hop flavor can vary from low to high with a resiny, earthy, or floral character, and balances the dark malt flavors. The dark malt and hops should not clash. Dry-hopped versions may have a resiny flavor. Fruity esters moderate to none.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full body. Moderately low to moderately high carbonation. Stronger versions may have a slight alcohol warmth. May have a slight astringency from dark malts, although this character should not be strong.

Comments: Although a rather broad style open to brewer interpretation. Dark malt intensity and flavor can vary significantly. May or may not have a strong hop character, and may or may not have significant fermentation by-products; thus may seem to have an “American” or “British” character.

Characteristic Ingredients: May contain several malts, prominently dark malts, which often include black malt (chocolate malt is also often used). American hops typically used for bittering, but US or UK finishing hops can be used; a clashing citrus quality is generally undesirable. Ale yeast can either be clean US versions or characterful English varieties.

Style Comparison: More bitter and often stronger with more dark malt qualities and dryness than English Porters or Pre-Prohibition Porters. Less strong and assertive than American Stouts.

CraftBeer.com Description

robust-porter
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GABF/World Beer Cup Description

75. Robust Porter
Robust Porters are very dark to black. Hop aroma is very low to medium. They have a roast malt flavor, often reminiscent of cocoa, but no roast barley flavor. Caramel and other malty sweetness is in harmony with a sharp bitterness of black malt without a highly burnt/charcoal flavor. Hop flavor is very low to medium. Hop bitterness is medium to high. Diacetyl should not be perceived. Fruity esters should be evident, balanced with all other characters. Body is medium to full.

Online Descriptions

Beer Advocate
Inspired from the now wavering English Porter, the American Porter is the ingenuous creation from that. Thankfully with lots of innovation and originality American brewers have taken this style to a new level. Whether it is highly hopping the brew, using smoked malts, or adding coffee or chocolate to complement the burnt flavor associated with this style. Some are even barrel aged in Bourbon or whiskey barrels. The hop bitterness range is quite wide but most are balanced. Many are just easy drinking session porters as well.
Rate Beer
Black or chocolate malt gives the porter its dark brown color. Porters are often well hopped and somewhat heavily malted. This is a medium-bodied beer and may show some sweetness usually from the light caramel to light molasses range. Hoppiness can range from bitter to mild. Porters, in relation to stouts of the same region, are typically more mild and less aggressively hopped.

Glassware

pint-glass tumbler seidel stein-ceramic
Pint Glass (or Becker, Nonic, Tumbler), Mug (or Seidel, Stein)³
Nonic Pint⁵

Food Pairing

Cuisine (Barbecue) Cheese (buttery; Brie, Gouda, Havarti, Swiss) General (Chocolate, Dessert) Meat (Beef, Smoked Meat, Grilled Meat)³
Aged Ham (prosciutto, Serrano, Bayonne), Meatloaf, Seared Scallops, Shepherd’s Pie, Soufflé, Steak, Venison, Wild Boar⁴
Roasted or Grilled Meats, Gruyere, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies⁵

Seasonality & Temperature

Season:

Winter

Serving:

45-50° F

Storage:

40-45° F*

Beer 101:

Porter

48-robust-porter

Links About Porter

About.com
All About Beer’s Profile
All About Beer’s Stylistically Speaking by K. Florian Klemp
Beer Advocate
BJCP 2008 Online (19C)
Brew Your Own
Brewery DB
CraftBeer.com
GotBeer.com
Michael Jackson’s Beer Styles
Rate Beer
Wikipedia

Commercial Examples of Robust Porter

Anchor Porter, Boulevard Bully! Porter, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Founders Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Smuttynose Robust Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter¹
Iron Hill Pig Iron Porter, Rock Bottom Moonlight Porter, Deschutes Black Butte Porter⁵

Top 10 Examples

Beer Advocate

Funky Buddha Morning Wood
Hill Farmstead Everett Porter
Perrin No Rules
Funky Buddha Maple Bacon Coffee Porter
Kane Sunday Brunch
Funky Buddha Last Snow
Jackie O’s Bourbon Barrel Black Maple
Kane Mexican Brunch
Hill Farmstead Birth Of Tragedy
Ballast Point Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter

Rate Beer

Smuttynose Robust Porter
Cigar City Puppy’s Breath Robust Porter
Greenbush Distorter Robust Porter
AleSmith Robust Porter
Reuben’s Robust Porter
Ballast Point Homework Series Batch #6 – Robust Porter
Big Sky Bobo’s Robust Porter
Birbant Double Robust Porter
Wisconsin #006 Porter Joe
Cheshire Valley Robust Porter

Key to Sources

¹ = BJCP 2015
² = GABF 2015
³ = Beer Advocate
⁴ = Garrett Oliver’s Brewmaster’s Table
⁵ = Brewers Association / CraftBeer.com
⁶ = World Beer Cup Guidelines 2016
⁷ = The Periodic Table of Beer Styles 2001
⁸ = GotBeer.com

Key

* = Not recommended for extended aging, unless ABV exceeds average range

Announcing Next Typology Tuesday: Irish-Style Dry Stout

March 1, 2016 By Jay Brooks

Two months ago I tried to kick off Typology Tuesday with American Barleywine. Last month it was Bock. For the month of March, we’ll be highlighting Irish-Style Dry Stout.

But two months in, I have to admit that there’s only a very small number of people interested in participating in the same way as the Sessions. As I said in the original post this was something I was interested in doing, and if there were others who felt similarly, then great. So given that it’s probably just me, instead of trying to make it one day, instead I’ll make an announcement on the first Tuesday, and then whoever wants to write about that style can do so whenever they want over the next month.

So anytime before April 5, write a post on Irish-Style Dry Stout. You can essentially write about whatever you like, with the only proviso being it should have something to do with the featured type of beer. After your post is published, please let me know it’s up so I can include it in the subsequent round-up. You can send me the URL to your post either by leaving a comment here, or even by including the hashtag #Typology in a tweet.

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