517. Highland Brewing Co – Oatmeal Porter

Posted By kkozlen on Jan 6, 2013 | 0 comments

If you’ve been following my blog the last couple of weeks, you’ve seen that I found several beers in the beer fridge that have been there for a while. I’ve had a couple of other Highland brewing beers, including their Gaelic Ale and their Kashmir IPA. I think this is the last beer from them left in the beer fridge.

The bottle says, “A unique Highland creation, this robust beer is black in color, very malty with hints of chocolate roasted flavor, and a well-balanced hop character.”

Location: Poured into a curved pint glass from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.9% ABV, 35 IBUs,  190 Calories

Ingredients: Malt: 2 Row Brewers Malt, Munich, Caramel 40, Caramel 60, Chocolate, Black & Flaked Oats; Hops: Chinook, Willamette, & Cascade

Appearance & Aroma: It’s black in color, and appears to be somewhat opaque, with some brown highlights noticeable when held up to the light. It’s got a very thin head, just a creamy ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass, however, it left a decent amount of lacing on the glass. It’s got a roasty aroma with some coffee notes.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouth feel is fairly smooth with a little bit of crispness. Up front, there’s a bit of a roasted sweetness with a hint of raisins, which gives way to a bit of roasted maltiness, chocolate, and light molasses flavors in the middle.  During the finish, some roasted coffee flavors come through and last into the aftertaste for a brief time.

Food Pairing: This beer had a lot of roastiness, and I think it would go nicely with something hot off the grill.  For me, this beer would be a great pairing with a thick steak, as the roasted flavors would complement the light charring from the grill, and the flavors stand up to one another.

Overall Impression: Most porters I’ve had tend to be a bit watery, but the oatmeal in this one gave it a nice body and smooth mouthfeel.  I enjoyed having that type of backbone set against the roasted maltiness, chocolate, light molasses, and coffee flavors in this beer.  Overall, I enjoyed it and felt it was a great beer to have on a cold winter day like today.

My Rating: