Shade Grown Coffee Porter - Real Ale Brewing Company

LacquerHead

Illinois

4.1/5  rDev +3.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Poured this into a Sam Adams pint

This poured a very dark brown. Fairly translucent for a porter. The head quickly dissapates to thin lacing.

At the get go Real Ale claims it to be a Coffee Porter; therefore, I am expecting strong coffee flavors - and that is what I got!

At a cold temp this tasted very thin. However, as it warmed up the beer came alive, allowing for the coffee flavor to do its thing. The coffee aspect was not overly robust nor was it weak. To me it was just right. It reminded me of an iced coffee.

As one would expect coffee is at center stage, however, at times I detected a slight taste of biscuit. There was very little hops, but there was some bitterness at the end of each drink. As I neared the bottom of the glass there was an alcohol taste that showed up now and again.

M/F: it taste thin at colder temps. It had a light carbonation but it never felt flat.

D: I drank a whole 6-er, and enjoyed every one of them.

Conclusion: it was on the lighter side for a porter, but all in all, this was a very good American porter. Solid! This beer stayed consistent to the end.

Serving type: bottle

12-17-2010 17:00:02 | More by LacquerHead

Xzfgiimtsath

Texas

4/5  rDev +1%

05-10-2013 00:24:26 | More by Xzfgiimtsath

oline73

Maryland

3.5/5  rDev -11.6%

04-29-2013 02:00:45 | More by oline73

BKotch

Texas

4/5  rDev +1%

04-28-2013 04:12:18 | More by BKotch

JeffSuttonTX

Texas

4.5/5  rDev +13.6%

03-10-2013 20:57:33 | More by JeffSuttonTX

JeffreyJDavis

North Carolina

3.5/5  rDev -11.6%

03-01-2013 05:14:12 | More by JeffreyJDavis

BryanCarey

Texas

3.68/5  rDev -7.1%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75

This dark ale pours to a dark brown/reddish color and emits an aroma that is roasty, with touches of caramel and chocolate malt. The foam on this beer looks nice at first, but it falls apart rather quickly and it leaves only a little or no lacing.

Real Ale Coffee Porter offers flavors of earthy malts and hops, caramel, roasted malt, vanilla, and some coffee. The bitterness level is moderate and the taste switches back to that of sweet, roasted malt and light coffee in the aftertaste.

Real Ale makes several delicious seasonal/specialty beer products and this is certainly a tasty beer but there are also a few surprises. It isn’t as robust as I had hoped and the coffee flavor is not as intense as I expected. Part of the reason for my higher expectation was my taste experience with other Real Ale specialty products. I assumed, in a hopeful way, that this beer would be equally robust and intense, but I quickly discovered that it is not.

However, this isn’t to say that Real Ale Coffee Porter isn’t a tasty beer because it is and it’s the type of craft beer that will appeal to both the craft beer crowd and non- craft, macro- brew drinkers. It is highly quaffable, complex, and flavorful enough to earn an easy recommendation- just don’t sample it expecting a robust porter and you should be perfectly fine.

Serving type: bottle

02-23-2013 04:23:35 | More by BryanCarey

wtkphoto

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

02-13-2013 17:56:43 | More by wtkphoto

jkn09

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

02-08-2013 19:37:23 | More by jkn09

laituegonflable

Australia

3.28/5  rDev -17.2%
look: 4 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Pours a very dark red colour, looks black until held up to the light. Head is cream-coloured, thin but able to be revived with a quick swill. Lace is not that clingy; sinks slowly down the glass. Nice; looks rich and inviting, like Richard Branson after a hit of MDMA.

Smells a little too sweet for my liking. Big grainy smell, almost raw without a lot of toastiness, although a light caramelised aroma hits later. Touch of plum, dates and red grape skins as esters, but mostly that sweet grain character. Decent, but can't say I'm a huge fan, and would really expect more... you know, coffee, from a coffee porter.

Taste is really rather similar, lots of sweet cereal notes. Puffed rice, hot cross buns on there, slight treacle glaze but a decent toasty note running down the back and a mild espresso flavour. A bit diminutive on the finish, there's a linger but it's all quite meek and muted. Slightly toasty and a bit sweet. Quite pleasant, but overall a bit lacking, yet tastes like it wants to be complex.

Yeah, a bit thin upfront but then regains some power towards the back. Drying, not hugely full.

Something's lacking, and I think it's heart. There's some high points and some lower plateaux. Not overall bad though.

Serving type: bottle

02-04-2013 10:27:38 | More by laituegonflable

clickyourfingers

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

02-01-2013 04:15:31 | More by clickyourfingers

phishbone23

New York

4/5  rDev +1%

01-25-2013 14:02:22 | More by phishbone23

FrizWhiz

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

01-23-2013 03:47:44 | More by FrizWhiz

n2185

North Carolina

4/5  rDev +1%

01-13-2013 04:58:17 | More by n2185

spycow

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -5.3%

01-12-2013 19:38:36 | More by spycow

Danielbt

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

01-09-2013 22:55:16 | More by Danielbt

TX-Badger

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

01-08-2013 02:34:37 | More by TX-Badger

tubeyes

Texas

3.75/5  rDev -5.3%

01-07-2013 03:00:06 | More by tubeyes

jaasen64

Massachusetts

3.38/5  rDev -14.6%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

12oz bottle poured into Lawson's snifter. Thanks Dan (totoropanda) for this one.

A- Pours a hazlenut brown that appears mostly black in the glass, very thin beige head that dissipates fairly fast, some light spotty lacing, fairly minimal carbonation that doesn't last that long.

S- Espresso beans, malts, about average aroma strength, nothing too exciting.

T- Coffee, espresso beans, malts, a little bit watery, some light hops, a little bit more flavorful then aroma but nothing spectacular. Decent coffee profile, but nothing much else.

M- Medium bodied, fairly light carbonation, easy drinking, a little bit watery.

O- This wasn't anything too spectacular. Decent overall, but nothing that made it stand out that much. I enjoyed drinking this, but I've had much better coffee porters.

Serving type: bottle

12-31-2012 23:43:29 | More by jaasen64

ShameAndFailure

Texas

3.75/5  rDev -5.3%

12-21-2012 19:57:42 | More by ShameAndFailure

t0rin0

California

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

12-17-2012 01:13:11 | More by t0rin0

Tarheel4985

Colorado

3.75/5  rDev -5.3%

11-27-2012 01:29:55 | More by Tarheel4985

Jasoncpace

Texas

4.25/5  rDev +7.3%

11-19-2012 22:38:41 | More by Jasoncpace

GMB

Japan

3.9/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Real Ale's Shade Grown Coffee Porter, which is brewed with Katz coffee beans, pours a mahogany body that allows some crimson tones to shine through its middle when held against strong light. A slightly vigorous pour produces a massive cappuccino head. I find that Real Ale's beers don't yield much by way of froth. Perhaps I overcompensated a little. Oops?

The nose is not complex, but it is very appealing. Roasted malts and dark roast coffee shine through. Nice and clean.

The taste follows the nose exactly. Real Ale has done a nice job of incorporating an adjunct whose flavor is already suggested by bittering hops and roasted barley malt. The coffee is crisp, clean, and turns the beer's excellently roasted malts' flavors up a notch. But the beer's mouthfeel leaves something to be desired. It's too thin, and doesn't do justice to the richness of flavor that has been achieved here. More malt, perhaps?

Shade Grown Coffee Porter is a beer that I'll be drinking next year, too. But I do hope that by then the folks at Real Ale will produce a more substantial beer that's identical in taste.

Serving type: bottle

10-30-2012 22:37:02 | More by GMB

bbadger

Texas

4/5  rDev +1%

10-30-2012 01:45:36 | More by bbadger