Beer – #648 – Sawmill – Coffee Porter

A long time between drinks for me and this brewer, but they appear to be quite strong at the moment, and I haven’t been wilfully avoiding them. So Long Gaps, Long Songs, Long Division and Long nights out.

 …beer that is clean and flavoursome and straight up.

Brewed by Sawmill Brewing Company this on is styled as a Porter and that’s North of Auckland in Leigh, New Zealand

This from the FYO station is a 5.2% ABV beer,  156 calories a serving size, and this bottle would be 4.1 standard drink units.

Friday Evening is looking up

A moderately strong brown beer that explores roasted malt flavors of chocolate and caramel.

So what could possibly go wrong?

The coffee aroma that I built myself up for, it’s not there. It’s there but it’s not THERE! it’s soft and quiet. It is however the only aroma from the bottle after I slip the flip top.

Pour is dark brown and the head looks like chocolate milkshake, I thought it would be a noise beer, it isn’t. That head subsides a little to a more manageable size, still looks great though.

Aroma in the glass? That raw cold coffee aroma.

Taste? Well the coffee is there and present in the drinking of this. Very coffee.

Nicely lightly bitter and a flat neutral finish, a small persistence of coffee linger.

This might be better warmer, which is a hope more than a fact. At the moment it is ‘thin’ drinking, there doesn’t appear anything to support or to carry the coffee in this, might be nice if there was some hop roughness, and a sharper finish, perhaps. I have patience, I can wait. Not f or long but I can wait.

I left it as long as I could, not long really, and the aroma that filled the glass was gorgeous. That is all, I’m leaving it some more.

[ a short while passed ]

The pour is much the same, but without the lovely head, the aroma still coffee, but slightly more bitter. Not a lot changed in the glass either, no pickup in the body, no addition to the finish. Much the same.

It is though a nice drinking beer, easy drinking, nothing that you might get upset with, but it’s not a big hitter, more a go-to comfort beer, for me missing a big of body, some chewiness, and I’d have liked a finish that was something other than neutral.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. Nothing to write home about here, nothing to set the word afire. If though I was visiting Leigh, I’d be happy to order this and sit in their bar with a pizza and enjoy myself, it is interesting enough, neutral enough to have a wider appeal, I don’t think it ever set out to be a flag-bearer or bench-mark setter.

The double dip review

• Am I enjoying it? I sort of am, it’s a nice time waster of a beer, supping away without thinking about it really.
• Would I have another? I probably would if I was visiting, I don’t think I’d go out of my way though.
• Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? This would pass muster as a share beer because of the loud coffee note, but that might be the whole conversation because there isn’t much else to talk about.

Music for this:  ” Have Gun will Travel ” is an alternative folk-rock band, They have an album “ Science from an easy chair ”  of course you can listen on Spotify.  Get a bit of the ‘ Spirit of Discovery ‘ in you.

PORTER

Black or chocolate malt gives the porter its dark brown color. Porters are well hopped and heavily malted. This is a medium-bodied beer. Porters can be sweet. Hoppiness can range from bitter to mild. Porters are often confused with stouts.