Mayan Porter Tasting

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all those brave men and women who gave their lives for our country.

This is the second bottle of the Mayan Porter I blogged about here.  The first bottle I tried was way over carbonated and filled up a 16oz glass with foam and I had barely poured 6oz out of the bottle.  So this time I was cautious.  A little too cautious as can be seen from the lack of head after the pour.  I improvised pouring the last 2-3 ounces straight in the middle of the glass and from a height of 8 or so inches.

I used a BJCP Score sheet as a guide for this tasting so that I remember to cover all aspects.  The judges at the Sam Adams Long Shot certainly will be.  Just so we are on the same page, I have only been a Steward at a genuine BJCP beer judging and do not have any qualifications.  I am “winging it” based on observation and study.

Bottle Inspection:  Residue in the bottle is minimal and obviously yeast.  The picture is slightly out of focus, but pretty good for a camera phone (I love my iPhone!).

Aroma:  No discernable hop aroma, but some malt comes through.  Definite aroma of chocolate.  I didn’t expect the chocolate to be part of the aroma of this beer, but it is unmistakable to me.  The secondary aroma is the chipotle, especially if the glass is agitated to produce a secondary head.  To me it is a pleasant, reminds me of smoked Texas style barbeque, ribs or brisket.

Appearance: The head is tan to off-white, about the perfect color for the base style (porter).  The head retention is short lived, probably due to the cocoa butter and other oils, but it should be downgraded for this flaw.  The beer is slightly cloudy, but not a “yeasty” cloudy.  To me it appears like the cocoa that is still in suspension creating that chocolate milk haze to the beer.   This beer is completely opaque and a deep chocolate brown (as I would expect).

Flavor:  I’m actually surprised at how drinkable this beer is.  Smoke beers and spiced beers I can usually only take one-at-a-time, but this is surprisingly easy to drink.  The up-front flavor is chocolate that quickly gives way to a common porter malty goodness.  Finally, the chipotle provides the “take-down” assault with a low, slow smoky burn that starts at the back of the throat and goes down, coating as it goes.  Lastly the smoke sensation backfills the senses reminding me of barbequed delectable's.  If you are prone to reflux disease, take your meds before drinking! 

Mouthfeel:  Body is medium-light; heavy enough to be considered a porter, but not too heavy.  Attenuation is good without a lot of residual sugar.  Carbonation is good to light.  The beer is fizzy on the tongue as the mouth warms it, but not carbonated enough to produce bubbles while sitting idle.  No astringency or other palate sensations other than the “heat” from the chipotle spices described above.

Overall Impressions:   This is a very good beer that is, in all honesty, probably not “improved” by the additional spices.  The porter recipe stands on its own or it wouldn’t be in my “most brewed” recipes in Beer Smith.  I wanted to try an experiment and although it didn’t go horribly wrong, it isn’t great either.  As has been proven for thousands of years in the production of beer, simple is best.  I would not say that this is a complete waste of time, but I will change a couple of things when I do this again.  First, I would use chocolate extract instead of cocoa powder.  Cocoa powder is a mess and nearly impossible to know when it is done falling out of suspension.  Second, I would use much less chipotle.  The flavor combination is very good, but it could be improved by being more subtle.

The telling part will be the comments from the two Guinea Pigs I gave samples to for this long weekend.  They will be able to add comments below.  Let’s see what they say.