Arcadia London Porter
By John & Dad on January 3, 2008 @ 5 PM (No Comments)
In what has become a regular tradition, we now review a beer together on our usual Thursday evening call. The Arcadia London Porter was the first beer we reviewed using our new The BeerFathers Beer Review Form, which will soon be available to the drinking public.
First off, this is one of the all-time great beer bottles. It’s got Winston Churchill on the label and he stares you down as you drink with his cigar and derby hat. Dad picked this up on a recent trip to Missouri to visit Grandma Beer Love and our derby hats are off to the Arcadia Brewing Company for this one. We served this one up in a pint glass. It has a good medium brown head, about average in size (3/4″) and slightly fizzy. It dissipates rather quickly though it does leave a fair amount of lacing on the glass. The body is just about solid black and it’s got a soft carbonation to it. It’s bottle conditioned and the pour leaves some sediment in the bottom of the glass.
The aromas are intriguing – coffee, dark chocolate, roasted malts and perhaps a touch of molasses. There’s also an earthiness and nice smokiness to it, plus some possible black licorice and soy sauce. The initial flavor is heavy and a bit sweet. The chocolate overpowers the other flavors and really doesn’t let them come through. This really prevents a true balance resulting in a not overly complex tasting beer. The finish is bittersweet and long lasting, and as it warms tends to get very sweet. The mouthfeel is creamy and smooth.
We suspected this might be a great beer to have with some cheese and fruit – perhaps strawberries. We got out some sharp cheddar and put it to the test and it immediately worked. This is a wonderful companion beer – the cheese lessens some of the strong malty aftertaste and it really does work. Combine that with its 7.2% ABV and you’ve got something pretty good. On the strength of that we’d probably move it up to a 7, but stand alone we feel it’s a good solid 6.
