Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

All-

I'm currently compiling serveral craft brands of porters to compare and try and take notes of what I like or don't like about each in efforts to hone in on what would really make a great porter, which I'm a big fan of in general.

Anyone have a commecial porter or porter recipe they are rather excited about. I know most commercial brands around here are brown portesr. I woudl really like to come up with a great robust or baltic porter.

cheers

Good porters seem to be in short supply in Iowa. I would try to get a Bells Porter, Black Butte from Deschutes is good but N/A, New World Porter from Avery may be available at Johns. It is a little different though since they dry hop it. I am sure it is robust though. Baltic porters are in even more limited supply. I have a great smoked porter on tap now and the base beer is a robust porter. I would be curious to discuss which beers you tried and your tasting notes on them. I to enjoy a solid, robust porter.

I have a chocolate porter. I'm not sure how it would be without the chocolate malt. Good luck on the commercial beers. John's probably has the biggest selection. Flying Dogs Gonzo Porter, Sam Smiths Taddy Porter, and St Peters Olde Stlye should be around here.

A "second" on the Gonzo porter from Flying Dog.

Boulevard Bully Porter is a fav.

New Glarus has a "Smoke on the Porter" which is self-explanatory, that is good if you like rausch style.

One of my first beers once I started brewing again (when I hooked up with you guys) was the Northern Brewers' Baltic Porter kit (you can look it up on their webpage to get the recipe). As I recall, it had several hop varieties that I'd never seen before, which attracted my attention. It scored a 3rd place in the Thirsty competition in November (almost a year old at that point), so it ages well, too.

Eager to hear the results of your sampling/polling.

The Sierra Nevada Porter and Anchor Porter are both supposed to be good and are both available at Hy Vee. Haven't had them recently myself, but probably worth giving them a try too. The others previously mentioned are all good too. Our (me and Matt) smoked porter is really good and would be a good porter without the smoke; nice and rich, creamy, kind of roasty. Hmm, I'll be right back...........OK, I'm back; you're welcome to come over a give it a try if you want. Could always get together for a porter tasting over the weekend. What a good way to taste several at one time to compare them.

Thanks all for the feedback, I do have several of those bottles you mentioned in my fridge, and ironicaly I have a northern brewer porter fermenting right now. I really meant to do my tasting first then brew based on the information, but figured I could add NB's apparantly proven track record and add that to the list of tastings.

I would like to get my hands on the bully porter. Right now i have about two bottles each of several brands, but hope to get one or two more then go over them carefully.

I like the smoked porters, but really trying to focus here on the more basic or robust porters.