New Belgium Portage - A Solidly Average Beer

To start with, I'd drink it again. I'd happily accept one if someone bought it for me, and if I have it again I will enjoy it.

That said, will I buy it again? Probably not unless it happens to be the only porter on the shelf and I have a really strong need for a porter. It hits all the points of being a porter. It's black with a mild, comforting toasty flavor. Hops are exactly as they should be, nearly unnoticeable, and it's creamy if just a little thin. If I try really hard I might be able to pick up on a little sweet malt, but I have to put some effort in to it. What can I say? This is a porter, but that's about it. Absolutely nothing stands out. It's as if it was produced for the widest possible audience possible. I shouldn't be too harsh. If I brewed one of these I'd be pretty damned proud. I would consider it a good showing, and I'd have no worries that when people told me they like it they're not trying to spare my feelings. It really isn't bad, but it is just average.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eel River Brewing Porter

Image
Certified Organic Porter After the last porter I bought this was more than a pleasant surprise. It was a reminder that porter still is one of my favorite ales out there. The Goods So, what's good about it. Well, certified organic, but then again, shouldn't all beer be? The ingredients are so terribly simple that all beer should either be certified organic, or come from grains or hops that were produced on a farm that is too small to be able to afford the organic certification. This is just a nice beer to look at. Dark cola color, but crystal clear. Nothing but the deep dark brown to obstruct the light showing through. Maybe the head leaves a little bit to be desired as it dies down pretty quickly, but there are worse qualities in a beer. In my opinion this is one of those beers that most definitely gets better as it warms up. The flavors and smells are allowed to come out, and the smell just gets bigger. It's rich, malty, with an almost mocha flavor going on in ther
Read more

Goodbye SonicAgile

Looking for agile project tracking online A while back I was looking for a hosted solution for tracking some personal projects I'm working on, trying to get organized and all that. In the office I'm in a world of Jira, so I was looking for something that, at least superficially, worked in a similar manner...I believe in tool consistency so as to avoid getting confused... I also wanted something hosted because the less I have to maintain myself, the better (one of the reasons I'm sold on Chromebooks). I also wanted something free. Until I have to pay for something, I'm not willing to pay for something. I'm cheap. In my research one name that kept popping up was  Trello . Check it out. It's totally awesome. It's totally simple. It totally didn't give me all the features I was looking for. It's great, but it's not what I was after.  I also had the opportunity to try out Visual Studio online for project tracking, and loved it. The problem
Read more

Scorpion Exo-T1200 Revisited

Image
Looping back to the helmet Now that I've had some time to ride around in the new helmet I thought I'd take some time to come back and share my impressions and experience in a little more detail than "hey, it showed up in a box!" So, here we go. What's to love Looks This thing looks good. I got the Alias Neon design. A flat finish, yellow and patterned black, this really is just a good looking helmet. It's a very cool design without getting too flashy, which works for be because up until recently I've just been a black leather rider and I don't really go in for the over the top designs. I prefer something a little more understated. This, this is clean, crisp, and gets right to the point.  Comfort After wearing a much heavier helmet for several years, this is a new and exciting experience. It weighs in at right around 3 pounds, and almost feels like I'm riding with nothing on my head. I also hate to fall for the rear air foil over
Read more