A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 82, Maine Beer Company King Titus Porter

This porter is dedicated to Dian Fossey and named after the silverback Titus. Pretty cool.  It is considered an Amerian Porter which is a redesigned English Porter.  How?  Well, how do you think?  What to Americans do to most of the rest of the worlds' beers?  They hop them up!  Well, that is not all they do.  They usually add ingredients that will complement the style in some way.  For this style chocolates and coffees are added to go with the burnt grain tastes.  It's quite ingenious!

I poured this beer just below room temperature and that is really what you want with this beer.  It poured almost jet black with a nice two finger brown head of various sized bubbles that leave a solid lacing pattern with holes in it sort of like street signs out on a distant farm road that has a multitude of bullet holes in it.  

The aroma is of dark rosted malts, chocolate, coffee, and a hint of citrusy hops with a bit of yeast.

The taste starts off with dark roasted malt sweetness intermingled with a chocolate and vanilla creaminess and as it works its way back a charred bitterness cavorts with hop bitterness and some yeasties and finally ending up both sweet, dry and acidic.  Well balanced.

The mouthfeel, to me, seems medium to full bodied with a silky creaminess that leaves a bit of slime on the toungue.  Not much, but it's there.  The carbonation is just under moderate and pert near perfect leaving you with a dry taste on the tongue.  

Overall, I would have to say that this beer nails it for the style.  It's perhaps a little too dry for my taste with a bit too much on the hop side.  All in all, it's roasty, smooth, creamy and bitter which is pretty much what an american porter tends to be.  This beer is getting at the very least 4 out of 5.

Hey folks, don't sell yourself short by drinking crap beer.  Spend the few extra bucks and enjoy life a little.  It's too short to settle for the mundane!

-Wiss