Mike’s Beer #1 – Wolaver’s Alta Gracia Coffee Porter

I’m going to come clean here. Even though I’ve covered central New York breweries with the Great Lakes Brewing News for nearly a decade, I’ve never been through a formal tasting process quite like we’re doing here. I’ve focused more on the marketing side of things, reporting about all the great beers that have been flowing out of the Finger Lakes and Catskills regions and the successes of our regional breweries. I recently resigned my position, and I find myself ironically looking more closely at beer than ever. That’s a good thing, people. Like when I quit tabling for MASSPIRG in college and then found time to actually recycle.

Here I am in my kitchen, examining Wolaver’s (Middlebury, VT) Alta Gracia Coffee Porter. Like all of Wolaver’s beers, this is an organic offering. The coffee is from the Dominican Republic, organically grown on a fair trade farm.

The beer pours dark brown, almost black, with a thin, cream-colored head. Fresh espresso beans are more than hinted in the bouquet, as a dry and fragrant aroma of coffee dominates the nose.

Alta Gracia coats the mouth like a glass of whole milk. It has a creamy consistency and has very light carbonation. The beer has a very clean taste, no doubt a result of the high quality ingredients used in production. The pleasant coffee flavor is very prominent with notes of dark chocolate, burnt caramel and bark. The coffee flavor dominates, with coffee flavors remaining long after a sip. The result is that few of the characteristics of a porter are evident, other than color and a body. The balance restored itself somewhat as the beer warmed closer to room temperature.

Overall – 6/10 … This is a tasty and enjoyable beer, a bit of a slow sipper due to the intense coffee flavor and aroma. While the coffee flavor was excellent, I prefer more malt to balance out the porter end of things.

I’m guessing that I’ll be much more comfortable with evaluating beer by the end of the year. Reviewing this one was somewhat stressful, as I hemmed and hawed my way through the pint, only to realize I had very little left to sip when I was done analyzing. I think I discovered a great way to beat this problem, though--for the time being, I’m going to drink two bottles for every one I review.