There's no hiding from it, I like my porters, and I like them smokey.
The more my beer pallet has matured the more I have been enjoying darker beers. There's your dark ales, dark lagers, stouts, porters, smoked porters and a whole lot of variety on those. Have you ever tried a honey porter? ..mmm delicious.
The most impressive dark beer I have had in 2016 comes from Blackman's Brewery, hailing from the sea-side town of Torquay, about 1.5 hours south-west of Melbourne, Victoria.
Blackman's Brewery boasts a range of 7 styles of beer and it was the Smoked Porter that stopped me in my (train) tracks.
The Arthur smoked porter is brewed almost perfectly. It's dark, rich and smooth and has a brilliant smokey flavour throughout.
It's not just the complexity of flavours which impresses but also the way in which Blackman's have managed to balance them out, that makes it a fantastic brew. It's a full strength 6% wonder-child of the dark beer world.
I gave it an overall rating of 8.5 a few weeks ago on offthetap but looking back I might even bump that up to 9 now given how much it has stayed in the back of my mind since then.
Over and Beer out.
Matt
