Miasmatic Review

Great Northern Porter

Shadoglare again sponsored tonight’s beer. He was over a couple of weeks ago and left me a Great Northern Porter by the Summit Brewing Company in St. Paul, MN to review.

It came in a customized 12 oz brown bottle. The bottle had the summit logo with grain stalks on it cast into the glass. The label is brown with the summit logo on it and the name of the beer below. Along with a seal that states it was established in 1986.

The beer pours a nice dark brown color with ruby accents. A nice tan quarter inch head formed as it was being poured. The head faded to a nice film on the top of the beer that seems to last. There is some lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is an overpowering combination of Coffee and Chocolate. You can also detect a faint scent of dark roasted grain. I don’t know if it was the actual alcohol content or the combination of smells described, but there was a faint smell of alcohol. The taste starts with a bitter baker’s chocolate flavor with a hint of coffee. There is a slight bitter hop finish to it. The aftertaste is bitter, but not over powering.

It is a medium bodied beer. The combination level seems a little high for a porter, but it’s nothing to complain about.

This is a decent beer, it’s a little bitter for a porter, but not bitter enough I wouldn’t drink more of it. Overall I give this a 5.5 out of 10.