Siletz Chocolate Porter
Siletz Brewing And Public House

Siletz Chocolate PorterSiletz Chocolate Porter
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From:
Siletz Brewing And Public House
 
Oregon, United States
Style:
American Porter
ABV:
Not listed
Score:
77
Avg:
3.17 | pDev: 25.87%
Reviews:
25
Ratings:
25
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Nov 11, 2008
Added:
Jun 27, 2005
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of bbothen
Reviewed by bbothen from California

2.39/5  rDev -24.6%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2
Pours a dark chocolate brown with a massive about 4 finger deep head. Seems something is off with the carbonation here.

Smells of roasted coffee, chocolate, toasted/roasted malts, sweet & bitter coffee.

Has a big off putting soured/spolied milk flavor that covers all the chocolate & porter flavors the nose suggested. This tastes no bueno.

Overly carbonated, medium bodied, lingering sour flavor.

Think something went wrong with this one. Not recommended.
Nov 11, 2008
Photo of BEERchitect
Reviewed by BEERchitect from Kentucky

2.63/5  rDev -17%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5
I had thought that I acquired an old bottle of the beer until many other BA's describes the same characteristics that I find in this beer. Begins with an overly carbonated bottle pour with a loose-knit head formation that erupted from the glass as expected from Belgians, but not American Porters- makes me anticipate an infection. Aromas give boost of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and a lactic acid / citrus note. Flavors alternate between the nice cocoa-coffee notes and a tart-sourness that proves to be distracting. A thinner than normal mouthfeel keeps the beer from becomming creamy, round, or full. Finishes with the mix of cocoa, coffee, and lemons. Hops are noticed throughout, but weave into the astringent character of the acidic flavors and textures. Not a particularly pleasurable experience, but not a quite a drain-pour either.
Jul 06, 2008
Photo of mhewes
Reviewed by mhewes from Colorado

1.89/5  rDev -40.4%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1
A : Pours a black with a thin tan head. Decent lacing on the glass

S : Chocolate aroma with a hint of hops. Not much else going on

T : The taste is really off. There's a sour malt taste to it along with the chocolate flavor.

M : Full bodied, good carbonation.

D : Drainpour. I was hoping for better but this was extremely disappointing.
Jun 29, 2008
Photo of russpowell
Reviewed by russpowell from Arkansas

3.62/5  rDev +14.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Pours a brown tinged ebony with 1 finger of tan colored head. Above average head retention & lacing

S: Some coffee & cocoa

T: Chocolate milkshake, roasted malt, & dryness
up front. More of the same as this warms, the dryness, starts to assert & annoy me. Finishes with coffee & mocha, almost pulled a 4.0

MF: Medium bodied with low carbonation.

Drinks alright, this had the potential to be so much better, a pretty good rendition of the style
May 12, 2008
Photo of Sorgasm
Reviewed by Sorgasm from Oregon

4.33/5  rDev +36.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
i accidentally happened upon the brewery in siletz, oregon on my way back from the coast. cool little place. the whole brewery is run out of a barn by two locals that were a lot of fun to talk to. one thing he noted (which may explain the bad bottles people seem to be finding) is that they're really just interested in making beer, so they leave all the distribution up to someone else. the brewmaster didn't even know where all you could find his beer.

anyway, about the beer, i actually picked this one up at a specialty shop in southeast portland.

appearance - pours pitch black with a nice brown head.

smell - like sniffing a chocolate bar. a faint roasty something, and a hint of hops, but mostly just straight ahead chocolate.

taste - oh man, this is desert. loads of chocolate, touch of coffee and a hint of hops to remind you its beer. finishes a little bitter, like dark chocolate.

mouthfeel - nice and smooth, feels more like a stout as it sits on the tongue (and the brewmaster admitted to me it is, his boss just wanted it to be a porter because there are "too many chocolate stouts already").

drinkability - good stuff, very drinkable. like a chocolate milkshake.

i feel bad for the people who got turned off by bad bottles, cause this is a great example of a chocolate porter (or stout). i guess you've got to live close to the source to get the good stuff..
Apr 02, 2008
Photo of blakesell
Reviewed by blakesell from Ohio

2.87/5  rDev -9.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 2
Poured from 22oz bottle into a beveled pint glass. I can only assume this beer is a 2005 vintage due to the advertisment on the side for a brewery party sometime that year.

Appearance- Beer pours a solid black with an impressive thick two and a half finger deep head of creamy beige foam. Very nice looking beer from the pour.

Smell- Smells of chocolate and cocoa. A slightly roasted malt presence with a hint of sourness that I can only hope is not a sign of what is to come with this beer.

Taste- Oh. This beer is well past its prime. I would go as far as to say the beer is terrible. The smell was as good as it got on this one. Thin sour malts with a hint of cocoa. This one may just be a drain pour for me.

Mouthfeel- Sour and lingering. Well carbonated and full bodied unfortunately so it sticks on the tongue and throat.

Drinkability- The third sip is the clencher. I'm sad to see it go, but the bottle will house a better homebrew. This one is going straight to the drain. Pretty bad for the kickoff. I'll find something better for halftime.
Feb 03, 2008
Photo of cswhitehorse
Reviewed by cswhitehorse from California

2.93/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
The Siletz Porter looks like it is going to be a winner when you pour the deep dark brew into your glass and it gives you the nice foam head for a spell. The smell is very aromatic of chocolate, that is for sure. The taste has the roasted malt coffee and chocolate but leaves the mouth with quite a bitter taste. It is thin in the mouth and doesn't do much for mouth feel. I would expect better from the coast.
Nov 09, 2007
Photo of Dogbrick
Reviewed by Dogbrick from Ohio

3.28/5  rDev +3.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
This beer pours a dark brown color that lets only a peek of light through. Medium light brown head that lasts pretty well, and patchy lacing. Dark chocolate aroma, along with some malt. Medium-bodied and somewhat smooth, with a flavor profile that does not seem to match up with the aroma. Sweet chocolate and a mild sour fruit flavor do not mesh very well. Some roasty malt characteristics keep it from becoming a complete disaster, but still the overall flavor seems off. The finish is chocolatey with a mildly sour fruit aftertaste. Kind of a letdown overall.
Oct 05, 2007
Photo of smttycty
Reviewed by smttycty from Oregon

2.33/5  rDev -26.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5
Found this in a brown bomber with no freshness date. Poured at cellar temp it looked oily and black. Putting a 100 wt bulb behind it showed no light at all (the sun's never around when I'm tasting). The dark tan crown looked fantastic on the black body, but only about a finger's worth with an aggressive pour in a freshly rinsed snifter. The half creamy smooth, half rocky bubble surface soon faded to a consistent surface of dense lace.

The nose started right out with black licorice with some moderate phenols. Unsweetened bakers chocolate and prunes on toasted whole wheat bread came behind. A pleasurable snort, spent a long time swirling this one before tasting.

The first sip was like a bull-whip. The hop bittering sang louder then the roasted astringency, but it was certainly off-key. The sharpness on the pallette made it is hard to find any nuances. I tasted more all-night diner coffee then chocolate followed by a long lingering bitterness in the mouth coating. The medium body wasn't as heavy as it looked but I wished there was more carbonation to help clear the stickiness in the mouth.

The sharpness on the palette surly hid any subtle complex flavors that may have been underneath but I wasn't getting the pot odds to keep the hand. I fold.
Aug 04, 2007
Photo of wingman14
Reviewed by wingman14 from Ohio

3/5  rDev -5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5
As other reviewers have stated this beer shouldn't be listed as retired, I just picked up a fresh bomber at a local store.

This beer pours an inky black with a dark tan head that faded quickly. The aroma is amazing and grabs you right away. It filled the room with a rich chocolate aroma, and upon further inspection has some sweet and burnt notes. Up to this point this beer was very inviting, but then came the first sip. Yikes, what happened? The aroma built this beer up to be something it isn't, it is sour and thin, with a burnt aftertaste. The mouthfeel is more of a light lager than a porter with decent carbonation, but just not right. This one was hard to drink, I can't imagine having more than one. Not a very good chocolate porter, there are many others out there that I would recommend before trying this one.
May 18, 2007
Photo of ChainGangGuy
Reviewed by ChainGangGuy from Georgia

2.65/5  rDev -16.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2
Appearance: Pours out a dark brown body with a small, tan-colored head.

Smell: Potent, intense chocolatey aroma - much like a Godiva-type liqueur. There's some roastiness and notes of pine in there, too, but first and foremost its chocolate.

Taste: I do wish I had a Sam Adams Chocolate Bock on hand to compare this to. Oh well.

The taste is chiefly that of a mouth full of dry, dusty cocoa powder. Any flavor in here turns suddenly to a sharply tart sourness that is rather long-lasting.

Mouthfeel: Medium-body, with a watery texture. Low carbonation. Very chalky on the finish.

Drinkability: A bit of a stomach-churner. Now I wish even more that I had that Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, so I could go ahead and dump this and switch to that.
Mar 26, 2007
Photo of Gueuzedude
Reviewed by Gueuzedude from Arizona

3.6/5  rDev +13.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
Pours with a frothy, three finger thick, chocolate cream colored head that has some staying power to it. The beer itself looks quite clear as I pour it, but sits in the glass an opaque black color. The aroma is quite chocolate dominated; sweet a bit chalky with a chocolate malt ball aroma. In the finish, aromatic notes of toasted & even roasted malt are found as well as a touch of burnt grain huskiness.

The taste has a light creaminess to it up front, it is fairly dry though and has quite a burnt barley / dark chocolate bitterness to it that linger on into the finish. The beer is lightly tart as well, and despite the up front creaminess is quite light and easy drinking. The tart acidity almost takes on a fruity edge to it, though I can't really quite say what fruit it would be.

The finish really has such a lingeringly bitter note to it that is joined, perhaps even magnified, by a the tartness. This beer is pretty tasty, but the strong notes in the finish are a bit to big for the rest of the beer to balance. This could be quite good if brought a bit more in to balance, though not too much as the sharp biting finish is nice and needed, just at a lower level.
Jan 22, 2007
Photo of bjohnson
Reviewed by bjohnson from Massachusetts

3.82/5  rDev +20.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
On tap at Redbones as my "dessert beer" after dinner.

A: Pours a jet black color with a one finger caramel colored head. Dissipates pretty quickly with no retention.
S: Big milk chocolate aroma. Chocolate notes of cocoa and nestle. Burnt coffee notes, but extra smooth.
T/M: Very large milk sweet chocolate and caramel notes with a slightly bitter finish and a nestle milk chocolate aftertaste. Extra sweet milk chocolate. Roasted and burnt coffee notes are also noticeable. Medium body, which is interesting considering I hoped this body would be extra big. Low carbonation allows the malt and bitterness to come through.
D: Drinkable, but as a dessert beer only. This is a bit thin in the mouthfeel unfortunately, but still a good beer to try if you're on the east coast as it's not readily available. Cheers to Chris for putting this on tap!
Nov 17, 2006
Photo of Iguana
Reviewed by Iguana from Oregon

2.15/5  rDev -32.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5
I was thinking today that I should try a Siletz beer since the brewery is about 30 minutes from me and I have never actually tried their beer before. Pour is jet black with a 1cm head that was only produced by a hard pour. Smell is faint hints of roasted malt so not too bad. Taste is really not right, sour bitter choclate like the previous reviews. The start is like this tart lactic taste and the finish is bitter dry chocolate. I dont even detect the faintest hint of porter in this. Mouthfeel is dry, and not much to it. Drinkability, I wont dump it, but I wont buy it again, this isnt even in the ballpark of what I expect from a chocolate porter.
Oct 31, 2006
Photo of BuckeyeNation
Reviewed by BuckeyeNation from Iowa

2.23/5  rDev -29.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 1.5
Darkest walnut with a faint hint of crimson. At first I thought the beer was opaque, but another look with really bright sunlight behind it proved otherwise. The golden ecru cap is filling exactly half the glass at the moment, giving the beer a perfectly proportional 'black and tan' look. I love the way that a nearly solid sheet of lace is visible from the upper rim of the glass downwards as the cap begins to recede.

Chocolate Porter smells like a chocolate porter... imagine that. It's a pretty good nose that I hope is repeated on the palate. Only thing is, there's an underlying tartness present that I've actually been fearing. Some Siletz beer that I've had lately has had a case of the sours. I hope this isn't one of them. It's probably too much to hope for that tangy, citrusy hops are the culprit.

Wow! One sip is all it takes to tell me that something is wrong with this beer. It doesn't taste old (why is it still listed on the website if it's actually retired?) and it doesn't taste infected. Not exactly anyway. It's both intensely, green apple sour and bitingly bitter with very little malt to calm down either one of those out of control flavor sensations. Did some joker dump a few hundred pounds of Sour Patch Kids into the brew kettle?

Somewhere down deep is a faint trace of chocolate porterishness that really has no chance given what else is going on. My masochistic streak isn't that wide, but I keep going back again and again to try to figure out what the hell went wrong here. Maybe this beer is retired. If the brewery brings it back, the least they could do is change the recipe from top to bottom. Or get some quality control that actually controls the quality of what they release.

The body/mouthfeel isn't that bad I guess. It's so hard to filter out the yowling from my taste buds long enough to determine whether I like the way the beer feels in the mouth or not. My best guess is that it's still too light for the style and is too fizzily carbonated. I'm about halfway through the bomber and that's plenty far enough. I feel like I deserve some sort of medal for getting this far.

Chocolate Porter--this particular batch at least--is ghastly beer. The folks at Siletz are fully capable of brewing good beer and I refuse to believe that they intended for this offering to taste the way that it does. If so, then good riddance. If not, then I'd welcome a return engagement when they finally get it right.
Sep 05, 2006
Photo of jdhilt
Reviewed by jdhilt from New Hampshire

1.8/5  rDev -43.2%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 1 | feel: 3 | overall: 1
Pours a four finger light tan head that fades slowly to a thin layer leaving a little lace. Totally black color. Light carbonation and heavy bodied. Bitter chocolate nose. Starts sour/bitter chocolate, stays that way to finish, bitter bakers chocolate aftertaste. Worst chocolate porter I have had. Must be the same batch as previous reviewer. $4.05 for a 22oz bottle from Liquid Solutions Tigard, Or.
Jul 23, 2006
Photo of Westsidethreat
Reviewed by Westsidethreat from California

2.28/5  rDev -28.1%
look: 2 | smell: 4 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2
A: Dark mahagony brown. Poor carbonation, literally fizzed at the surface. No head to speak of since then.

S: Lactose, cafe au lait, cola, dried cocoa powder, black patent malt and marshmallow cream.

T: First thing that grabs me is the sourness....same sort of sourness I had in the cream stout. Is it supposed to be this way? Moving on...Tastes like cocoa powder added to sour milk. Pungent, acidic...yuck. I can't take another sip.

M: Medium body with NO carbonation.

D: This is going down the drain. So far Siletz is 0/2 in my book. I've got the Spruce ale and Wooly Booly to try next and they better not suck. Since I got both of these other terrible Siletz beers from the same online store, I'm wondering if they haven't been taking care of the beers properly. Or perhaps they got a bad batch. Regardless, the beer I'm tasting is not the beer others are reviews, straight up.
Jul 10, 2006
Photo of carln26
Reviewed by carln26 from Missouri

4.04/5  rDev +27.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
Deep brown to black with mild orange highlights and topped by a thin tan head. There seemed to be plenty of carbonation in the beer, but the head did not last as long as I wished. The nose is deep, dark chocolate. I get a little espresso too, just a touch of dark berry fruit, and the lightest bit of citrus. Wow, not what I expected, but still nice. I’m getting a citrus orange flavor right as I sip the beer. The chocolate, and a light espresso follow in a bit, the finish has some of the chocolate covered cherries I found in the nose. Nice bitterness on the finish. Slick mouth feel, not all that rich. Still a very drinkabkle beer.
Jun 08, 2006
Photo of MuddyFeet
Reviewed by MuddyFeet from North Carolina

3.48/5  rDev +9.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5
On-tap at Redbones with my lunch on November 15.

Almost had the look of chocolate milk this beer was such a perfect chocolate brown. No head but there was some scum sitting on top and floating about. No lace.

Nose was more like cocoa than chocolate.

Very sweet and chocolate tasting. However, the chocolate flavor was more like powdered hot cocoa mix. Slight bittersweetness rises at the end. Not sure if those are the hops or more likely the chocolate--dark chocolate. Kind of a sour milk flavor too.

Medium body that was hairs away from being watery. A bit acidic. However, this beer grew on me as I worked my way through the glass.
Nov 16, 2005
Photo of GClarkage
Reviewed by GClarkage from California

3.16/5  rDev -0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
10/19/05- Purchased at Liquid Solutions in Portland, OR.

Presentation- 22oz bottle with a cool silk screen design of a chocolate hand print on the bottle. No freshness info to be had. Poured into my Moylans pint glass.

Appearance- Dark brown, approaching black in color. Nice dirty brown head about 1/2 inch in size. Lacing is a bit lacking though.

Smell- This is one of the most wonderous scent I have had from a beer. Huge milk chocolate scent with a nice cocoa backing. Amazingly chocolaty.

Taste- Damn, was hoping the taste would line up with the scent. There is a chocolate flavor, but there is a huge and I mean huge bitterness behind the taste. Almost salty in taste.

Mouthfeel- Kinda like gargling with a low range salt water solution. The carbonation is too high as well.

Drinkability- Not that drinkable. Awkward taste and feeling. Oh well, I guess if you just want to pour it in a glass to smell it, might me worth it. That's about the only good quality here.
Oct 20, 2005
Siletz Chocolate Porter from Siletz Brewing And Public House
Beer rating: 77 out of 100 with 25 ratings