Epic Brewing Blue Law Porter

I recently had this company's collaboration with Crooked Stave, Elder-Brett.  It was tasty; I'll post that review later.  As I was typing it up, I realized I had something else from them in February that I forgot to post here.  So, here it is.   Copy+pasted from my notes.

Name:                 Epic Brewing Company Blue Law Porter

Style:                   Porter

Twist:                  Brewed with blackberry puree and spruce tips

Strength:            7% (release #2)

Notes: Release #2, apparently the first was much weaker (5.4% or so).  The bottle is 22oz and has no apparent bottling date.  Part of this company’s “Exponential Series,” and my first from them overall.  

A brewery from Utah, eh?  The beer is a very dark brown that bears evidence of crimson when dimly lit.  When held directly in front of the light, the bulb reveals it to be transparent, not opaque like many (most) porters.  An aggressive pour yields almost no head.

Looks black....

....but isn't.

Keeping in mind this is a wide-rimmed glass that disperses aroma far rather than contain them like a snifter, I do not find this especially aromatic.  From the bottle I get some rather obvious dark tart berries, though not distinctly blackberries.  Spruce is muted; I get almost nothing smelling it from the glass.

The blackberry is one of my favorite fruits, so I am always down to try a beer made with them.  I am happy to say that it shows up more in the flavor than it did in the aroma.  It has more of a sweet blackberry flavor, less tart, though there is some soft acidity on the back-end.  The spruce part of the beer is more subdued than the other two spruce-spiced beers I have had (Alba Scot’s Pine Ale and Goose Island Gran Gas, which I blogged about at the time).  It takes on a spicier flavor than I would like, but it does add contrast.  The hops help it along in the spice department.  If I close my eyes and try really hard, I can almost imagine a bit of chocolate barley flavor; the spices really dominate this beer.

The mouthfeel is a decent blend of semi-sweet and semi-tart, neither really overpowering the other.  This is by far the most balanced part of the beer.  A fairly light body for such a relatively strong beer (7%) leads me to believe the extra alcohol is from fermented blackberry, not barley (which would make it thicker).

Probably my least favorite spruce beer I’ve had, but it really is more of a fruit porter than a spruce porter.  My first exposure to this company and Utah beer is a good one.  I look forward to trying Epic’s other beer’s as long as I am in a region that gets them, unlike Illinois.

This was typed as it was drunk on February 2, 2013.