Southern Tier Raspberry Porter

Well after a very long day I figured I deserved a treat so I went to Ye Olde Forge for a dinner of nachos and beer. I was really in the mood for a porter and the only one on the draught menu was one I keep avoiding, Southern Tier Raspberry Porter. Why do I avoid it? I avoid beers with food in the title. I want my coffee to taste like coffee and my beer to taste like beer. If I wanted to eat a bowl of raspberries, which I love by the way, then I would eat raspberries, not drink a beer. Anyway, many people I know like this beer so I thought, “awe heck, I’ll try it”. FAIL!

One snif and It was like a bowl of capt’n crunch raspberries. Totally over the top on the berries. Dude, where is the beer? If there was anything else to notice here, I missed it. I kept sniffing to see if there was anything else going on here and the only other thing I could think of is raspberry seltzer water. You know, kinda tickly to your nose.

I sipped it, hoping that might help, FAIL. It was a flavour of some maltyness and yeastyness and rotten fruit. The aftertaste, which I really care about, by the way, was dry and so off I couldn’t wait till my nachos came. I hoped that the nachos would help this beer.

Wrong again. I ate some nachos and then sipped some beer and this time it tasted like cough syrup! This is why beer and food like items should never mix. All of that said, if you are a fruity beverage person, you might just like this one. ★★★★★

Liam Sullivan has a great note on this beer, “On the other hand though, it fails to go beyond the novelty to approach a complex, satisfying beer.”