We have created our Black Lightning Porter to have intensely rich malt aromas with strong notes of chocolate and coffee. This has been by the judicious blending of 9 different malts, the bulk of which are from classic UK maltsters. Even though many breweries will add coffee and cocoa extracts to produce these effects, we feel this cannot replace the subtleties experienced by using only malted and then roasted barleys.
Our Black Lighting Porter is further crafted with the generous amount of hops that it takes to balance the intense malt nature of this beer. Without this degree of hopping the beer might taste “sweet” from the residual sugar that remains after fermentation has completed.
Finally, Black Lightning Porter is fermented and aged under a sophisticated process with our house strain of British Ale yeast. This results in one of the handful of truly refined extreme porters available. After fermentation is complete, we extensively age and lager the beer further. This has allowed us to allow sediment to settle and clear from the beer without the use of clarifying agents or filtration that may strip out additional flavor components.
Beer Ratings and Reviews:
[1] Review by Sap from Tucson, AZ, USA who has tried this beer once. (5/24/2008 11:57:19 PM)
"Excessively carbonated as a careful pour yields a six finger thick (including a full finger above the rim of my 25cl tulip glass), browned, dark tan colored head that proceeded to over flow the sides. The beer is quite black, but just shows some touches of color when held up to the light. The aroma has quite a pronounced, fruity, burnt prune note to it. As well as some tart smelling burnt grain notes, a slight burnt vegetal note, some campfire smoke and black coffee aromatics are all noticeable in the aroma. The aroma seems a bit disjointed and not very well integrated & it is either starting to show signs of an infection or the recipe really is not very well integrated.
Rich and malty, the beer is quite thick and chewy with a huge palate coating body. Sweet dark malt flavors contribute notes of chocolate and coffee liquor. The beer finishes with a salty, almost peat smoke character to it that mixes in with flavors of burnt grain, charcoal and dark roast coffee. The expressive fruitiness of the aroma is quite a bit more muted in the flavor, but still comes through just a bit as does a slight, burnt cabbage note towards the finish. This really does have a rich mocha quality to it. This richness is tempered just a bit by an up front, slightly astringent, burnt-charcoal sourness that has a fairly soft effect.
The taste is a lot cleaner than the aroma, so this might actually not be infected, but it is still a bit too disjointed, though I should not that all of these flaws are somewhat subtle, for me they just add up to be a bit too un-savory. The recipe for this beer actually seems like it might be ok, it just seems like the fermentation control or sanitation procedures were not quite there. Hopefully the next batch of this will be much better as both of the beers that I have had from this brewery have been misses. I still think they show some promise and will be keeping a look out to try this again as well as their other brews.
Purchased: South Bay Drugs Pharmacy, Imperial Beach CA"
Aroma:
6/10
Appearance:
6/10
Mouthfeel:
8/10
Flavor:
6/10
Overall:
5/10
Final Rating, by Style:
(3.1)
Sampled: Bottle Sample Size: 22oz @ $0 Unit Cost: $0 per Pint
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(3.1)
