Longboat Chocolate Porter - Phillips Brewing Company

Naerhu

Japan

4.3/5  rDev +16.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Thanks to the Silverhand and Jackytreehorn.

Drank with RobBeer in my living room, helluvaguy.

Excellent beer. The word double in the title pertains to the double chocolate as opposed to the double porter.

Very dark brown body, with chunky tan head.

Amazingly complex aroma of hand-made chocolates. Like what Scharfenberger bittersweet.

Very mild and easy drinking. Definately nothing double powered on the flavor. Cocoa, a hint of sourness and a whole bunch of goodness. Surprisingly clean.

Very light body.

Very drinkable. My pint was gone before I knew it.

Serving type: bottle

04-03-2008 14:20:03 | More by Naerhu

Viggo

Ontario (Canada)

2.85/5  rDev -22.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Picked up this bomber at the local liquor store.

Pours an opaque brown, red in the edges, decently thick and medium sized tan head forms, quickly settles down to a thin ring, no lacing. Smell is chocolate, nuts, toffee, bready, some light roast, more chocolate milk, reminds me a lot of the Rogue Hazelnut porter. Taste is very thin, some light chocolate roast, caramel, weak coffee, almost nothing there, very bland. Mouthfeel is thin bodied with medium carbonation, doesn't feel very good. Smell was okay but the flavour is very weak and watery, not good.

Serving type: bottle

02-24-2008 02:32:00 | More by Viggo

msubulldog25

Oregon

3.38/5  rDev -8.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 3.5

A remnant from an August 2007 visit to BC; tasted early Feb 2008, in a pint glass from a 650mL (22 oz) bottle. Notched at: '3', 'O[ctober]'...is that 'best by' or 'brewed on'? This is either 3 months past its 'best by' date or 15 months past the 'brewed on' date...it's been stored in a cool, dark cellar since August.

A: Pours jet black with a head that crests just above 1-finger. Head is light tan, foamy at first, and drops to a creamy and lightly bubbly film. Bits of film cling on the glass.

S: Aroma is purely chocolate syrup, a sweet/fudgy aroma. Nothing else...

T: Light cocoa powder with a roasty malt that hints at nuts, but tastes decidedly of milk chocolate. A little lactic souring and some hop bittering, enough to balance things out.

M: Has an oddly clean and light, yet cool, mouthfeel; however, wateriness soon follows. A bit of carbonated crispness, but still a light body. It's a thin finish, not unlikable but certainly weak for the style.

D: Easy enough to drink; at barely 5%, I could see having a couple of these at a sitting. Flavor is decently chocolately, yet light and (modestly) refreshing.

Serving type: bottle

02-03-2008 03:25:33 | More by msubulldog25

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

3.53/5  rDev -4.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3.5

Very black with fluffy soapy head and soft lace. Medium sweet chocolate and malt aroma. Much too overcarbonated with fizzy carbonation medium at best mouthfeel. Certainly chocolately but drying finish. Chocolate aftertaste. I think better if on cask. At Volo.

Serving type: bottle

12-24-2007 20:07:32 | More by northyorksammy

biboergosum

Alberta (Canada)

3/5  rDev -18.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Grabbed a bomber of this at a little (there aren't any other kind) liquor store last summer in Radium, BC. It was by far the only interesting thing beer-wise there, the sales clerk remarking that it was 'brand new'. After putting back the Nelson and Revelstoke pints with a cute girl on the patio at the Horsethief Creek pub, I relegated the Longboat to my suitcase. Now that the weather is more appropriate, I thought I'd polish this off tonight for dessert.

This porter poured a deep opaque cola brown, with a three-fingered tan head that melted away fairly quickly, no lacing to speak of. It smelled predominantly of bitter chocolate, with some fruity sourness. The taste leaned farther toward the sour, with the chocolate flavour taking a backseat. The body was much lighter and thin that I would have expected from something with 'Double Chocolate' in the name. This also made the carbonation seem heavier than it actually was. As it warmed, the taste exhibited a more vinous quality, with a bit more chocolate showing up as well. This was a fairly easy drinker, but not nearly as full or intensely flavoured as I was anticipating, my recent comparison being Rogue's Chocolate Stout. Somewhat underwhelming, after my previous exposure to Phillips' brews.

Serving type: bottle

12-09-2007 09:09:00 | More by biboergosum

JanM

Sweden

2.63/5  rDev -28.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Poured with a very, very dark brown color and little foam. Looking a lot like a Coke with lots of bubbles. There was a strong smell of milk chocolate powder mix and some ashes. Tasting it my first impression was how thin the body was for an English porter, compared to, for instance, the excellent Fuller's London Porter or Young's Double Chocolate. Then came the chocolate notes and, at the end, the ashes. There was also some weird sweet smell/flavour reminding me of the stuff they use for desinfection at hospitals. A grave disappointment considering my previous experience with Phillips beers.

Serving type: bottle

08-14-2007 15:55:01 | More by JanM

fisherman34

Manitoba (Canada)

2.83/5  rDev -23.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 2.5

Bottled sample via oakes. Near black in colour with red hints and medium carbonation. Single-minded aroma of chocolate syrup (it REALLY reminds me of Quick). Loads of milk chocolate flavor with a touch of fruit and a finish of roasted nuts and black patent malt. Some sweetness at the start, but the palate gets watery and thin quite quickly... so not much body to speak of. It dries out way too fast as well. Overall, everything starts off well, but the follow-through is weak.

Serving type: bottle

12-30-2006 22:17:10 | More by fisherman34

DrJay

Massachusetts

2.73/5  rDev -26%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3

Clear, dark brown with chestnut highlights. A vigourous pour produced about an inch of fizzy tan foam that fell quickly to a ring. Just a little lacing. Malty aroma with notes of cocoa, roast, burnt, and light caramel. Not bad at all. The flavour is all kinds of wrong, especially compared to the aroma. Fairly sweet with little balancing bitterness, the major flavour component seems to be tart cherries that are dominant from beginning to end. There's not much in the way of chocolate, roast, or malt here, but as it warms these qualities become barely apparent. The body's strange as well, with not much heft up front but a little syrupy in the finish. The carbonation is rough as well, giving it a bit of soda character. What a peculiar beer. I really enjoyed the aroma, which was exactly what I was expecting. The flavour seems like it belongs to a completely different beer. It's not terrible, but not something I'd have again. Thanks wintermute!

Serving type: bottle

12-02-2006 00:29:51 | More by DrJay

grub

Ontario (Canada)

3.55/5  rDev -3.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

got this bottle in a trade with stephenlouis. thanks stephen!

pours a deep brown colour with a thin head that disappears almost instantly.

aroma is nice. dominated by a slightly sweet milk chocolate aroma. hint of roasty malt.

taste is nice. mildly sweet milk chocolate. just a little roast. as it warms it comes through a little more bittersweet. fresh from the bottle it doesn't taste like a porter and it's mostly just chocolate, but as it warms a little the porter comes through.

mouthfeel is good. body is about right, but the carbonation is fairly low.

drinkability is good. nice, smooth, easy drinking beer that i'd love to have available locally.

Serving type: bottle

09-26-2006 01:25:35 | More by grub

Citadel82

New Jersey

4.33/5  rDev +17.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Picked this up in the BC liquor store in Vancouver and Enjoyed it in my snug and cozy cabin on the Seven Seas Mariner. What a delightfult rich and roasty treat to enjoy with salt tang wafting in fro our cabins balcony as the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest unfolded. Like the Inner Passage this brew is vast in scope and timeless in character.

Pours Opaque deep brown with a frothy, sticky, light brown head.
Aromas of chocolate, espresso mingle with wine and ripe fruit. Taste is complex blend of cocoa, charcoal, winey notes and hints of bready and sweet malts, Mouthfeel is rich and slick with some fine effervessence. This is an incredibly drinkable brew that left you longing for more...It was a long swim to shore but I did think about stealing a Tender...

Serving type: bottle

08-07-2006 20:18:49 | More by Citadel82

Phyl21ca

Quebec (Canada)

2.9/5  rDev -21.4%
look: 3 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Bottle: Poured a black color ale with a medium head with good retention. Aroma of chocolate is subtler the name of the beer would suggest. Taste is drier then expected (I was expecting more sweet chocolate then anything else). Body is about average but lack the creamy texture that would have made this a great beer. Definitely not one of my favourite, I was expecting more from this brewery I guess.

Serving type: bottle

05-29-2006 18:02:56 | More by Phyl21ca

elricorico

Alberta (Canada)

3.45/5  rDev -6.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Pours dark brown like root beer, the edges are see through. A thin tan head to start that falls to a ring within a minute.

The smell is a battle between milk chocolate and porter sourness. I find it to be a bit strange. I also get a bit of vanilla in the aroma.

The taste comes in as a mix of chocolate milk and coffee. Quite rich and smooth tasting. There is a faint roasted malt flavour in the finish. Hops are not notable. Lingering in the back of the mouth is a bit of smokiness. I'd say it is a decent taste, but falls short of greatness overall.

Mouthfeel is good for a porter. A bit of body and light carbonation. Could be thicker, but not by much.

When I see the word's "Double Chocolate" I can't help but get excited. This isn't bad, but it is no competition for Young's.

Serving type: bottle

05-10-2006 01:46:21 | More by elricorico

Orrshow

Alberta (Canada)

4.05/5  rDev +9.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Appearance – Near black with a dark brown hue to it. Light tan head dissipates to a ring quickly. There is some lacing but not much.

Smell – Up front this beer is dominated by chocolate. There is a hint of roasted malt as well and what seems to be vanilla. I also detect a bit of hops, nothing citrus or floral though. Not bad but its missing something.

Taste – Again the first impression is chocolaty. Cocoa is there along with baking chocolate which soon turns over the taste of smooth milk chocolate. There is also a bit of mocha flavor present. Very nice. I like the sweet maltiness of this one a lot.

Mouthfeel – Carbonation is fine. Toned down how I like it. Body was slightly lacking though…a little thin.

Drinkability – No complaints here. This thing is fairly easy to drink.

I think with a few adjustments this could be outstanding. A good first impression of Phillips. Cheers to elricorico for the bottle.

Serving type: bottle

05-06-2006 17:03:17 | More by Orrshow

BDTyre

British Columbia (Canada)

4.33/5  rDev +17.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Having this on-tap restores my faith in Phillips' ability to brew heavier beers. While I enjoy this and the Dark IPA, the Espresso stout somewhat destroyed my faith in this breweries ability to do stouts and porters.

On-tap, this is an improvement over the bottle. Nice dark porter colour couple with a definite sweet chocolate and dry malt scent. Tastes smooth, milk chocolatey with dry malt on the finish. Thicker, creamier and smoother than the bottled version. I previously found this to be a bit watery but on-tap the mouthfeel is significantly better.

I hope to see this on tap again....

Serving type: on-tap

03-24-2006 09:00:25 | More by BDTyre

Derek

British Columbia (Canada)

4.15/5  rDev +12.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 5

I purchased this from Spinnakers Spirit Merchants, just a few blocks from the Brewery (although the bottle label has not been updated, they're now located at 426 William St.). Although the brewery isn't set up for retail sales, you can purchase kegs from them.

A: Black with a hint of ruby. Tan head doesn't have any retention, but leaves a little lace.

S: CHOCOLATE, with a little mocha and bread.

T: VERY chocolatey, nice bittersweet balance, slight tangy fruityness. (Taste is pushing a 4.5).

M: Light body, slightly chalky, moderate carbonation.

D: Awesome. Really between 4.5 and 5, but since I skimped on the taste score, I'll give it another nudge here.

Serving type: bottle

12-24-2005 18:41:20 | More by Derek

Knuckles

Washington

1.2/5  rDev -67.5%
look: 2 | smell: 1 | taste: 1 | feel: 1.5 | overall: 1.5

When I was a kid, I once touched a hot iron. My mom saw me eyeing the iron and said, "Don't touch it, it's hot." Well no shit, mom. I KNOW it's hot. What I don't know is just how hot it is. So, I touched the iron and learned a very valuable lesson: hot irons really ARE hot, just like mom says. (I then went and watched "Son of Godzilla", and learned that if you have giant preying mantises on an island, big ass lizards are the way to go. I also learned that thermonuclear bombs make the giant preying mantises even bigger, but don't seem to do a damn thing to the giant lizards. It was a lesson-filled day.). Anyway, this beer is somewhat like that iron.

I have had, over the years, four or five different beers from Phillips Brewing and I haven't cared for any of them. However, I keep going back to touch the iron, hoping I was wrong all those other times I got burned. Well, I am once again wrong, and now refuse to go back to the iron. If someone wants to hand me a bottle of Amnesia, I'll give it a shot. But I'm sure as hell not going to buy the damn thing. Even this dumbass can get burned one time too many.

The theme of today's review is: Flat, watery, maraschino cherry syrup laden cola.

Appearance: Again with the "when I was a kid" crap. When I was a kid, every time we would go to a Chinese restaurant I would order a Shirley Temple and my brother would order a Roy Rogers (to compound my faux pas, I would also order a hamburger, as my only frame of reference for Chinese food was the La Choy swill my mom would foist on us twice a month). We had no idea who Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers were at the time, we just knew that we were either getting Sprite or Coke with an assload of maraschino cherry syrup added to it. This thing looks like a Roy Rogers that has had all the ice melt. Dark red and watery, and nothing like a porter at all.

Smell: I might smell chocolate, but really it just smells sweet. Not malt sweet, like "Hey, this is a malty beer" but syrupy sweet as in "Ok, who's the jackass that dumped their chocolate syrup in my beer?"

Taste: There is nothing even remotely resembling a porter in this taste. It's all syrupy sweet and then a hint of semi-dark chocolate. It really does taste like a flat Roy Rogers, or a flat chocolate Coke (which, I'm sorry to say, is one of the nastiest creations - the soda, not the beer - I've ever had the misfortune to taste). Even my eight year old doesn't like this beer, and he's a sugar junkie like any other kid his age. (In his words: "tastes like really bad chocolate with no taste." No, I haven't the faintest idea what he means.)

Mouthfeel: Again, yet another watery soda comparison. Very thin, very watery. I want a porter to have some presence in my mouth, and this one simply doesn't. This has all the mouthfeel magic of orange Gatorade, without the electrolyte boost.

Drinkability: Sorry, can't do it, and won't recommend it. I won't be able to finish this bomber. It truly is a drain pour.

The label reads as follows: "Big and rich, this London style porter is charged with chocolate to give a distinctive finish."

1) This is London-style like I'm a big band leader. It may want to be, but only in its dreams.

2) Yes, it's charged with chocolate and yes, it has a distinctive finish. However, neither element is really a positive. If you're going to make a chocolate porter, I would suggest going for a REAL London style, one that has a dry, roasty, almost smoky finish (you know, coke fired malts and the like), and then use some nice, dry baker's chocolate to give you that dry, chocolatey finish you are purportedly going for. Because if that is precisely what was being aimed for, this beer fails miserably.

Serving type: bottle

08-27-2005 03:37:51 | More by Knuckles

Garin

Alberta (Canada)

4.38/5  rDev +18.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

I believe Phillips has been tinkering with this recipe, as my latest sample is far better than my first taste around Christmas time.

It pours a deep chocolatey brown -- not quite black, but close. A decent fluffy head forms and stay for a bit. Not much lacing is left on my glass, but a good looking beer nonetheless.

The aroma is deep chocolate with a slightly roasty edge to it. The flavour is similar: layered chocolate and roastiness, with a nutty woodiness underneath. Very little hops character is detectable. It is slightly sweet, but this doesn't impair its drinkability to me. For a "double chocolate" beer, I expect some sweetness and lots of chocolate -- and here it is.

The mouthfeel is light enough to avoid being cloying, but smooth enough to feel creamy.

All in all, this is pretty much exactly what I expected to drink. Well done Phillips.

Serving type: bottle

06-13-2005 19:24:18 | More by Garin

Noxious26

Saskatchewan (Canada)

4.7/5  rDev +27.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

Serving size is a 650ml bottle poured into a pint glass.

Longboat is dark black and opaque. The head is dark beige/light brown about one and a half fingers high. There isn't much head retention though.

The chocolate smell is right up front. Reminds me of luscious dark chocolate that you only treat yourself to at Christmas. Very sweet, but teasing a little malt and bitterness.

True to the scent, this is dark chocolate in flavour. Quite sweet for a porter, but bitter for chocolate. At the swallow the taste is all chocolate, but as it mellows to the aftertaste a burnt flavour joins the chocolate as they both mellow from the palate. A coffee flavour develops as you progress through the drink. This is probably due to the warming. At the end it reminds me of eating chocolate covered espresso beans.

Slightly carbonated, the mouthfeel is well balanced and even. Perhaps a little thin compared to other porters I've tried.

This reminds me of a dessert wine. Something that is nice once in a while, but that you couldn't drink all night long. However, this brew I would like to have on a regular basis.

All in all, this isn't really that much like a porter. So if that's what you're looking for, this is the wrong place. The brewer's intent was obviously to be strong on chocolate (in the name it does say "Double Chocolate Porter") and I think in that respect they've created a fantastic beer.

Serving type: bottle

06-06-2005 00:48:24 | More by Noxious26

canucklehead

British Columbia (Canada)

3.23/5  rDev -12.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

The label promises big chocolate notes and alas what is inside does not deliver . I found this too thin for my tastes and not moca enough. Drinkable but not memorable. Compare to the Spy Porter from Tree and you can see the difference a strong midbody can make in this style.

Serving type: bottle

01-18-2005 04:02:51 | More by canucklehead