Stone Smoked Porter w/Chocolate and Orange Peel

Almost two and a half years ago, not long after I started this blog, I reviewed two variations of Stone's long-time classic Smoked Porter, a beer partially brewed with peat-smoked barley malt.  One was smoked porter with chipotle peppers added, and the other was smoked porter with vanilla beans added.  I ranked the chipotle one the better, to my surprise, though I preferred both to the original and still do.  This past fall Stone added another variant to the mix, brewed with orange peels and dark chocolate.

 

The beer appears much as its three cousins do, a blackish-brown hue that lets little light through.  The foam is offwhite and reaches a respectable height before receding a few minutes afterward.

The aroma is very much unlike any of Stone's other smoked porters, however.  Smells of flowery citrus, akin to those found in scented shampoo or hand soap, lazily waft out from my glass.  Blended in with the orange aromas is a hint of Scotch, courtesy of the peat-smoked malt used.  The combination is somewhat awkward but not obtrusive, largely because both sensations have a deft touch.  Despite this approach, the chocolate still manages to get completely buried.

As with the aroma, smoke and oranges both dominate the flavor more so than chocolate.  The blend is still more awkward than harmonious but not overbearingly so.  Of all the variations, this one most strongly showcases the peat smoke.  It doesn't need to; this beer needs more chocolate.  The combination of Scotch and perfume-esque citrus just works less and less the more I drink it, more coco would make for a more interesting experience.  Hops are low, as expected.  The orange peel appears to have conferred an extra layer of bitterness.

The addition of orange peel also seems to have conferred higher acidity to Stone Smoked Porter, though nowhere near enough to warrant a sour description.  It did not add any additional sweetness, however, and this iteration more or less maintains the same sweet-dry balance as its cousins. 


Overall, a decent beer, but I vote this the worst of the four versions Stone has bottled so far.  In addition, after my recent experience with Pipeworks Orange Truffle Abduction I have decided that the combination of oranges and stout (or porter) just does nothing for me.  That beer was made with orange zest; this one, orange peel.  Yet both retain little of the essence of the fruit, instead coming across like a scented shampoo or candle.  Not for me.

Hardywood Gingerbread Stout

Name:                 Hardywood Gingerbread Stout

Style:                  Imperial cream stout

Twist:                 made with honey and ginger

Strength:             9.2%

Poured from a 750ml corked & caged bottle.  Served in a snifter.  This is my first beer from this company.

Looks more or less like every imperial stout around, impenetrable night black.  The foam is offwhite and not quite a finger high (maybe two-thirds of a finger), but it retains very well.  Carbonation appears ample with very fine bubbles.

The aroma is a dead ringer for gingerbread cookies; no surprises there.  Ginger, molasses, sugar, and bread dough.  The honey in this is more subdued, as is the lactose.  Some faint coco powder.

Hardywood enthusiastically tried to make the beer equivalent of the gingerbread man and they wildly succeeded.  The honey is a little bit more upfront on the palate, but I would still say most of it got fermented out.  The ginger, however, doesn’t even try to hide itself; it veritably coats the mouth in a warm glow of Christmas cheer.  Though Gingerbread Stout initially finishes surprisingly dry for a cream stout, as it warms more of the underlying lactose sweetness shows itself.  I still wish it was a touch more sugary, but not much more.

Rear label

As for the base stout flavors, they have trouble making their presence known amongst the onslaught of ginger.  There is a slight hint of chocolate from the barley but not much else.  The lactose primarily provides body rather than flavor.


If Southern Tier tried to make a gingerbread cookie stout, it would probably taste like a sweeter version of this.  While enjoyable in small quantities this really should be shared at the family dinner table, as the ginger starts to wear down the palate. 

Avery Rumpkin vs Avery PumpKYn

Last fall, Avery released two whopping strong barrel-aged pumpkin beers.  One of them, Rumpkin, they have made every year since 2010.  It's a pumpkin ale, presumably with an amber ale base, aged in rum barrels with pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.  The other, Pump[KY]n, was brand new to 2014 but looks to be an annual release every fall.  It's an imperial porter/stout aged in bourbon barrels with pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves (the "[KY]" in the name is for Kentucky).  Amber ale vs porter and rum barrel vs bourbon barrel should make for an interesting comparison every year.  Call it Pumpkin Combustion 2.0.

Here's the kicker: each one is over 16% alcohol.  Rumpkin has varied from batch to batch, but the 2014 I had was 16.73% alcohol.  Pump[KY]n, hereafter Pumpkyn, was 17.22% alcohol. 

Like most porters, Pumpkyn's appearance is easy to describe.  A thin collar of bourbon-colored foam sits astride a thick body as dark as night, with fine yet slow-moving bubbles rising to the surface.  Rumpkin's appearance is red and opaque; its head is as small as Pumpkyn's though quicker to form.  Rumpkin might have a little more carbonation.  Rumpkin's color does not show up very well in my photos unfortunately; Pumpkyn is hard to miss.

Pumpkyn

Rumpkin

Many pumpkin beers are impossible to tell apart by smell alone; not in this case.  Unlike a certain pitiful pumpkin porter I reviewed recently, Pumpkyn clearly shows its porter base in the aroma.  Upfront smells are molasses and whiskey, not unlike Bourbon County Stout.  Scents of nutmeg, allspice, chocolate fudge and cinnamon follow in decreasing prominence.  I could not definitively tell it was aged in bourbon barrels, but it certainly has a whiskey aroma.  By contrast, Rumpkin easily gives away its rum barrel in the aroma.  Rum candy, butterscotch candy, caramel candy...yeah, lots of candy in the smell.  Additional suggestions of nutmeg, pumpkin, apples dipped in caramel and toffee waft out of the glass.  In both beers, the spices play second fiddle to some other element.  Overall, Rumpkin smells much brighter than Pumpkyn and also smells much more strongly of its barrel, while Pumpkyn smells more like an actual beer. 

If Goose Island was to release a Bourbon County variant that was brewed with pumpkins and pumpkin pie spices, it may very well taste like Avery Pumpkyn.  Pumpkyn lacks the more prominent vanilla flavors of Bourbon County and it's not as smooth as the best batches of that beer, but it's damn close.  A bright flash of booze starts things off like a shot across the bow, warning you this 17% beer means business.  Whiskey and chocolate barley peak through next, with the whiskey getting more prominent after a few swirls around the mouth.  Molasses also becomes stronger with a bit of swirling, and Pumpkyn finishes on a fiery note of booze, whiskey, and cinnamon.  Throughout all this, pumpkin and most of the other spices get lost in the barrel and the base beer.  I spent a good hour slowly sipping this beer, and the longer it warmed up the more it reminded me of Bourbon County; the molasses flavor in particular became stronger as it warmed, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bourbon County.

As the aroma portended, Rumpkin tastes much more strongly of the rum barrel it was aged in than Pumpkyn tasted like bourbon.  Also like the aroma, it's candy sweet.  Rum candy starts off the show before segueing into apples, caramel, nutmeg and pumpkins galore.  By mid-palate the rum barrel and barley malt dominate, with a bit of pumpkin on top.  The malted barley takes on a caramel-dipped apple flavor here.  The finish offers a brief reprieve from the sugar high, in the form of a pleasant warming campfire of rum, ginger, and pure ethanol.

Though both beers are sweet, neither is syrupy-thick.  Rumpkin is the sweeter of the two but I think that's more from the rum than from having a sweeter base beer, as Pumpkyn is clearly the thicker of the two.  Neither is cloying but Rumpkin comes closest in its candied decadence, being balanced largely by alcohol warmth and an almost excessive amount of ginger in the finish.  I don't want to give the impression that these are easy to drink, but I must say they don't burn as much as I feared they would.  They have pleasing alcohol warmth, not a cheap liquor burn.


So, which is king?  For me it's definitely Pumpkyn, for a few reasons.  For one, the resemblance to Bourbon County was a pleasant surprise, as I greatly enjoy that beer.  That it managed to do so without being overpowered by the bourbon barrel like so many similar beers is a huge plus in my mind as well; here, both the barrel and the pumpkin pie spices play a secondary role to the beer.  It also helps that this completely blows away every other pumpkin stout or pumpkin porter I've tried, though in fairness that's a pretty small list. 

The only real complaint I have against Rumpkin is gets too sweet the warmer it gets, at least for me.  It is perfect to split with a friend, however.  I do enjoy the rum barrel, and I would love to see more beers aged in rum barrels after trying this.  Ultimately, this tastes more like other pumpkin beers, just sweeter, stronger, and with rum. 

All in all, two fine pumpkin beers that both greatly exceeded my expectations.  Years ago, when I first started getting into craft beer, Avery's stronger beers had a reputation for being overly boozy messes.  Either that was undeserved or they have stepped up their game since then.  These are both worth seeking out next fall.