Beer Tasting 5

I've been lax in having my friends over for some simple sharing of beers so I made up for it last week. If you're interested, you can read about the first four at these links: one, two, three, four. For those that are new to my beer tastings, the basic idea is I invite some friends over and they all bring something they've wanted to try or just something they find on the shelf and then we share them. Pretty simple. Sometimes people choose beers based on the label, some times they actually want to try something specific, and sometimes it's their homebrew. Really, it's just an excuse to get together and make some of my friends try new things. Heck, my friend Jeff picked up a bottle at the Sam Adams brewery in anticipation of one of these nights. It's nice to know I have an affect. Hmm, effect? Affect? I probably should just use a different word. Oh well. (edit: My wife has informed me it's effect. So grammar issue solved.)

Here's the first set of bottles we opened. Really like the barrel structure of the Samuel Adams bottle on the right.

Sam Adams Holiday Porter

Today we have a Sam Adams Holiday Porter. This was another gift from Dan.

Interesting nose. Some roast with a slightly spicy bite backing it up. At first I thought it smelled a bit like molasses but after thinking about it for a bit I realized it was the hop profile blending with the porter base. The first sip showed this to be true with some mild roast being the main point and then some slight bitterness and vague spiciness coming from the hops. Continued that way through the whole glass without much change. Nothing super complex, but decent enough and I enjoyed it.

Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock

My brother gave me a few beers for Hanukkah but I've been remiss in actually drinking them and trying to make up for that now. I started with the bottle of Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock.

Light chocolate nose with a hint of fruit. Nice body on it, not too thin. Started with some chocolate, then some slight cherry notes, and finishing with a bit of cocoa. The chocolate flavors grew as I drank more and it was quite enjoyable throughout. I can see some people not liking the way the chocolate presented itself but I liked it.