Klein Duimpje Porter

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

Pours a semi-transparent Coca-Cola brown with a fairly thick pale beige head. Aroma is smoky with a firm undertone of unsweetened chocolate. Flavor is smoky and chocolaty and fairly sweet with a whisper of cola. Texture is smooth and fizzy and leaves a nice tingle.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, tan colored head that sits on top of an almost black colored brew. When held up to the light though it shows a brilliantly clear, rich red color. Aromas of brown malt, toasted bread, chocolate and some berry like fruitiness are what I notice first about this beer. Soft aromas of candi syrup, caramel and a touch of earthiness seem to round things out a bit.

Very light feeling and it is much sharper than I expected. It has a bit of acidity to it and has a chalky, roast grain character to it. The soft acidity seems to accent a flavor reminiscent of plums, but this is secondary to the cocoa malt notes and the toasted, dusty grain finish. The tartness here seems to be created from the chocolate malt and a poor watch of the mash PH, rather than being infected as the beer is a clean mix of yeast, malt and hop. The hops are fairly subtle here, perhaps accenting a touch of earthy, herbal notes.

Not a bad beer, just seems a touch too tart to work with the clean yeast, malt & hop profile. The chalky grain notes would likely be mitigated if the mash PH was watched a bit more closely (though I could be way off on that). This is tasty enough to be quite the easy drinking brew though, it seems to just disappear from my glass without much effort.