Herevana – #192 – Mount Brewing – The Argo
Whilst we’re having Vinyl music, and Porter, I thought I would have the Mount Brewing – The Argo – which I brought at the Fridge and Flagon store.
Mount Brewing Company make The Argo in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, 🇳🇿 New Zealand as a Porter – Imperial at 10.8% ABV
An afternoon of Porter then, this one steps it up a little being the next on the level “the Imperial”, mostly just more alcohol 🙂
This has such careful presentation, I know it’s a crown seal, but there is a sticker band over the cap, it all counts, I’m a sucker for premium looking things.
Wow, what a fib that was, just about the alcohol, this is so so much more, the aroma on this fair leaps out of the bottle on opening, rich milky chocolate and rich steeped fruits, I swore aloud, just a little it’s that lovely and surprising.
A pour like black engine oil, dense, and languid, there’s carbonation but it’s not effusive. (I’m trying new words – I think I’ve used languid before). There is no head.
The aroma is next level gorgeous, this really is something you just want to sit and take in (I wa going to say sniff, but that sounded odd in my head).
The sip… well knock me down, this is a monster of tastes a proper punch to the taste buds, it bursts with rich deep steeped fruits, raisins, and leaves you bit overwhelmed. It also has a really full mouthfeel, it seems like it’s an enormous insurmountable beer.
Which it isn’t, there’s no race, or need to race, no dash to the end, let it sit, let it fill out, become itself, it’s a beer to enjoy good music with, which funny enough I’m doing.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as a 10 on the arbitrary number scale. This really sets a benchmark for the year, this is a beer full of character, boldness and is such a mountain of flavour and taste, a proper beer.
Music: – Slowdive. from 2017. I shouldn’t have to say why I think it’s outstanding.
Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.
Philip himself.
The vision for Mount Brewing’s barrel aging program is simple, high quality, unique beers. They source only the best ingredients to fill freshly emptied barrels. With a focus on small batches, their beers are all limited edition and aged until perfectly complex.
Brewers Notes
The first release in their ongoing barrel aging series is an Imperial Porter. A complex blend of caramel sweetness with roasted malts and coconut sugar aged in French Oak barrels previously occupied with Merlot.
Experience oak, plum, and chocolate on the nose before savouring a rounded and luxurious flavour profile with notes of chocolate and hazelnut, utilising the properties of black forest rye and vienna malts.
It will last long in the memory, but not the glass.
Porter – Imperial
The Imperial Porter is a substantial, extra-strong dark malty beer with a complex and flavorful dark malt character with a restrained bitterness. It may have a range of roasted flavors, generally without burnt qualities, and often has a chocolate-caramel-malty profile. Stronger, more bitter and often with more dark malt qualities and dryness than of regular Porters but lack the overt roastiness of an Imperial Stout.
A life just as ordinary 