Epic Portamarillo

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

From trade with slowrunner77. I'm a sucker for these weird beers: this one pours a dark leather brown/near-black with a nice beige head and big drapes of lacing throughout. Sweetly and light smoked roasted malt aroma, some chocolate, a near-citrus almost-port nose, nicely inviting. Porter flavor at first, but wait... what is that? Lightly smoked, yes. Pleasant light flavors of dark chocolate, yes. Something else... The Tamarillos! Like a hint of a sweet, rich Bloody Mary teasingly lingering in the taste, just a pinch, but it's there, smoky, sweet, rich and very tasty. This was a treat. I didn't know what to expect with this one but it works very well. Glad I got to try one - HUGE thanks to Chris for sending this one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

I remember seeing this on the DFH brewing website and thinking, this is a joke. This doesn't exist. They have gone to far. Yet here the beer sits in my glass, and smells like a hoppy/smoky brown ale. A spice reminiscent of roasted chilis and tomatoes does seem to exist on the nose, or at least sensations related to said vegetables (tomatoes=vegetable?). I grew some of these the past summer and very much enjoyed the flavour, more acid and bodied than a tomatoe. Did a bit of research and many tamarillo species are extinct or endanged, so it figures DFH would want to brew a beer from these, although they are returning to popularity. Let us return to the beer in the glass. Good head retention, big bodied, lightly acidic, latent bitterness. Really good beer all gimmicks aside. I detect a slight cocoa on the palate, and heat, there is definitely something that makes me think chili heat, but I do not know what it is. Not a swigger, would pair well with many foods, including but not limited to; carrot cake, salad with vinagrette, nuts, soft cheeses, beef en croute, hunter scnitzel. Ya so good with the mushroom sauce and breaded veal/chicken, o yah! The smoke is un-ignorable in the nose and flavour of this beer, it is really spicy and earthy, it really penetrates but never detracts from the other parts of this brew. I can really only honestly give this beer high marks, and I would even if it wasn't brewed with tamarillos.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

not anything too exciting at first, but it really grew on me as it opened up. smoke, roasted malt & a hint of chocolate on the nose. smooth feel started thin but got fuller. flavor the only thing that has a hint of the tomato, but it's not obvious...just an odd additional sweetness you just can't place. a hint of smoke in the finish as well.