Blue Law Porter - Epic Brewing Co.

TappaKeggaBrew

Ohio

3.88/5  rDev +10.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

A: Pours clear, but a deep, red-mahogany hue. Head is a finger of dark tan foam, with a hint of magenta; it fades after a minute or so , leaving delicate whisps of lacing clinging tenaciously to the sides of the glass.

S: Toasted malt, sweet dried fruit, and citrus notes all mixed equally together.

T: Medium-sweet malt, with a mild, acrid flavor. Tart berries swing up to dominate the middle, then are replaced by the notes of grapefruit-rind and bitterness as the hops comes through, with the finish becoming tart again.

M: Slightly chewy, but crisp with decent carbonation. Finish is dry, but not astringent.

O: This is a porter, first and foremost, but the tartness and hoppiness do set it apart a bit from the rest of the class. I don't see this becoming a favorite, but it is worth trying.

Serving type: bottle

01-05-2013 03:26:17 | More by TappaKeggaBrew

UCLABrewN84

California

3.78/5  rDev +7.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Bottle I brought to share at drewone's place.

Pours a clear dark reddish-brown with a foamy khaki head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Foamy rings of lace line the glass on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, berries, earth, and cocoa. Taste is much the same with a slightly sour fruity finish. There is a mild amount of roasty bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with some interesting aromas and flavors.

Serving type: bottle

01-21-2013 05:47:08 | More by UCLABrewN84

jimmah120

Minnesota

3.76/5  rDev +6.8%
look: 5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 3

22oz bomber served in a killian's irish stout glass. the bottle says 7.0% ABV, along with "release #2". so whenever that is... consumed the end of may

dark ruby color, great looking bier. smell is the blackberries, along with flowery hops, and roasted malt. feel is smooth and medium, taste is very flowery, with a sweet berry background. finishes a little cloying like strong cranberry juice.

odd but good. still, i prefer a more traditional porter

Serving type: bottle

05-23-2013 02:36:10 | More by jimmah120

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

3.7/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75

My Welcome beer, I acquired from a recent US trip. Sour at the beginning, this porter yields tasty tart fruit. Black with a big head. Some spruce taste. Decent drinkability, though on the edgy side and more malting and more spruce would have been my preference.

Serving type: bottle

01-08-2013 14:53:32 | More by northyorksammy

Halcyondays

California

3.63/5  rDev +3.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

22 oz. bomber,

A: Pours black with a medium off-white head, fair lace, good head retention.

S: Dark malt and chocolate, some roast, missing the berry.

T: Nice classic porter chocolate malt flavour, hint of charcoal, the blackberries really come in on the finish adding a nice touch.

M: Light to medium-bodied, crisp and soft, easy drinking.

O: I like what the berries brought here, I couldn't find the spruce, comparing it to a beer like Alaskan Winter Ale where the spruce is overt, I just couldn't see it. A real nice effort, price sucks, but for a one time try, OK.

Serving type: bottle

12-24-2012 04:39:50 | More by Halcyondays

dbrauneis

New Jersey

3.63/5  rDev +3.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Release #1

A: Pours a clear but opaque very dark amber in color (almost black and looks darker from a distance) with some moderate amounts of gentle visible carbonation near the surface and some brown highlights. The beer has a finger tall creamy light tan head (with a twinge of old lady hair blue) that quickly reduces to a couple of small thin patches and a thick ring at the edges of the glass. Moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Just more than moderate amounts of aromas of blackberries with some much lighter notes of roasted malts and just a hint of spruce.

T: Upfront there are light to moderate flavors of roasted malts with some light flavors of blackberry. There is a light hint of spruce and mild amounts of lingering bitterness.

M: Medium bodied with slightly more than moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly thin.

O: This is a very interesting beer and judging from some of the other reviews, I'm glad that I got the first release as it seems like the blackberries were more pronounced (as well as the spruce not being too intense).

Serving type: bottle

02-24-2013 22:58:09 | More by dbrauneis

liamt07

Ontario (Canada)

3.61/5  rDev +2.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

Bottle shared by Steve, release #2. This one is 7.0%, 650ml bottle into a tulip.

Black with a tan head. Light lacing with a film of retention. Nose of light roast, chocolate, blackberry and some roasty sourness. Tastes of blackberry and/or blueberry extract, dark chocolate, light candy sweetness and dries out on the backend. Medium feel, medium body, and a light sourness. Simple, but pretty boring.

Serving type: bottle

05-02-2013 20:26:40 | More by liamt07

tdm168

North Carolina

3.58/5  rDev +1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

A - light brownish amber with little head

S - faint roasted malts, coffee

T - creamy, roasted malts, coffee, faint chocolate, some yeast, bitter finish

M - medium bodied, smooth, well carbonated

This was disappointing. I was hoping for something full flavored, balanced, and thoroughly enjoyable. This is instead mildly flavored and quite subdued if not a tad bland. It was nice to try once, but I won't seek it out again.

Serving type: bottle

01-20-2013 00:33:10 | More by tdm168

mactrail

California

3.46/5  rDev -1.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Attractive reddish brown in the Aventius weissbier bulb, with a nice foam. Spritzy on the tongue with some frothy creaminess after each pour. Modest aroma of roasted grain.

Inescapable chocolate flavor. A pleasant maltiness. Slightly tart and a little muddy. Dark malt with some burnt sugar and caramel. Not very sweet, but malty just the same. A bitter tang for the aftertaste without much actual hop flavor. That funny earthy fruitiness like blackberry seeds leaves a less than pleasant taste in the mouth.

I can't see much attraction for this, but it's a decent gulp. The lighter side of dark. From the 22 oz bottle bought at Liticker's Liquor in San Diego.

Serving type: bottle

06-13-2013 05:19:41 | More by mactrail

metter98

New York

3.45/5  rDev -2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

A: The beer is very dark red in color (black when viewed from afar) and poured with a short light beige head that died down, leaving a large patch of bubbles in the center and a ring around the edge of the glass.
S: There are light to moderate aromas of blackberries and spruce in the nose. The spruce tips seem to stand out more as the beer warms up.
T: The taste is similar to the smell, except that that the spruce tips are more prevalent. There are some notes of chocolate and roasted malts.
M: It feels medium-bodied on the palate and has a low to moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is quite interesting but I thought that it could have used less spruce tips in both the aromas and flavors. It was also difficult to taste the underlying porter.

Note: Release #2

Serving type: bottle

12-25-2012 18:10:47 | More by metter98

JohnGalt1

Idaho

3.43/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

This is a medium-bodied porter to which we added blackberry puree at the end of primary fermentation and finished it with spruce tip extract harvested from Blue Spruce trees found on the grounds of Utah’s State Capitol building. It has a roasting profile with a fruity tartness and an aftertaste of resinous spruce.

Picked up at the COOP tonight for ~$6.... Poured into my slim tulip while listening to music and screwing around online. Dark tan head leaves fairly decent lacing... standard dark walnut brew.

Nose has all the expected roastiness and light chocolate... the spruce comes off as a little bit like menthol... no real berry in the aroma that I can pick out.

Flavor mirrors the nose... but I think I get a little bit berry toward the end of the palate that is delivered with some residual sweetness.. again, the spruce only manifests on the finish... I honestly would have just pegged it as a standard porter without help from the label.

Body and carbonation are good for the style.

4/3.5/3.5/3.5/3

Serving type: bottle

12-15-2012 04:13:09 | More by JohnGalt1

Mitchster

Michigan

3.25/5  rDev -7.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

$7.99 for a 22oz bottle @ Bevco. Brewed with Muntons Maris Otter, Briess 2-Row Brewer’s Malt, Briess 2-Row Carapils Malt, Weyermann CaraMunich III, Briess 2-Row Chocolate Malt, Weyermann Munich Malt Type I, Briess 2-Row Black Malt, Briess Roasted Barley and Oregon Fruit Blackberry Puree. Hopped with Chinook, Perle, Tettnang. For this bottling, the brewers doubled the amount of Chinook hops in the dry hop in order to bring out additional piney characteristics, complimentary to the Blue Spruce tip extract. 7.0% ABV.

Pours out to a nearly opaque dark chestnut, not black, forming a modest light tan head with ok retention and good lacing. Carbonation is on the mild side, about 2.0 carbs. The aroma is pretty good/ Lots of nice roasted malt character with malted chocolate milk, a touch of light roast coffee, subtle hops, a clean neutral ferment and the blackberries, which come across as distinctly blueberry to me. Mouthfeel is moderately tart, not as full bodied as I was hoping nor as full bodied as the nose would have you believe, with a roasted malt tannic astringency which completely envelops the mouth in the aftertaste. The taste is overall pretty average. The spruce doesn't come through at all. Zero. Nadda. The blueberry flavor overshadows even the roasted malts and hops, throwing the whole beer out of balance.

I'm not really getting into this beer. The spruce would be a nice counterpoint if it existed, and the chinook doesn't add any appreciable pine character. I think the blackberry/spruce concept would go further in a beer that didn't have as many roasted malts, more along an ESB or amber ale. The label did inspire me though. I just racked a Belgian Golden Strong onto some blueberries and balsam. We'll see how it turns out. This one is worth a try, but I can't honestly recommend it, nor would I buy it again.

Serving type: bottle

12-21-2012 04:03:58 | More by Mitchster

Chaney

District of Columbia

3.18/5  rDev -9.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25

BA says this is 5.9% ABV, but my bottle says 7.0%... just thought I'd point that out. New recipe, perhaps?

Served in a DFH oversized snifter.

A: Viscious pour, huge mocha head, and with liquid below that about as black as night. Looks good.

S: No real raspberry and only faint roast. Still, I could tell this was a porter. Too understated to my mind.

T: Okay, I got the fruit now, but didn't particularly care for its flavor in this setting. Pretty weird actually, and infinitely memorable. Nevertheless, I prefer a smokier flavor in my porters and I'm aware that the brewer(s) weren't heading in that direction.

M: The carbonation was enough, the lacing mildly splotchy, and no booze detected. However, this was pretty bland in that area as well.

O: I think in this particular case, what I like in the style and what the brewer(s) intended just didn't meet in the middle. C'est le vie.

Serving type: bottle

02-20-2013 00:03:35 | More by Chaney