Wiki defines Porter as follows: “Porter is a dark style of beer developed in London from well-hopped beers made from brown malt. The name was first recorded in the 18th century, and is thought to come from its popularity with street and river porters.”
I like the Yuengling Dark Brewed Porter and the General Washington’s Tavern Porter. Both have a strong smooth flavor.
I recently tried the Sierra Nevada Porter and found it harsh, a little ashy and with a bad aftertaste. It is OK with a meal but poor on its own.
I had also bought Southern Tier’s Porter. This was horrible. It was a little skunky and way too hoppy.
The Yuengling is excellent to my taste and fairly inexpensive, as little as $6.29 per 6 pack. The General Washington’s Tavern Porter is closer to $10.
Which porters do others like? Which are closer in taste to Yuengling or GW is anyone is familiar with these.
Saranac makes a pretty nice one, but it’s hard to find by itself in many venues (as opposed to finding it in one of their 12-bottle sampler packages I mean)
If you like the sweeter porters, I’d look out for Baltic porters like Okocim or Zywiec. It’s relatively easy to find here, where there is a big Polish community, but I don’t know how it is elsewhere. My go-to porter is the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald porter, but I do quite like the Sierra Nevada Porter; it’s also one of my favorites, so maybe my preferences wouldn’t be applicable to you.
I do like Saranac’s products. On the rare occasions I am up near their plant I try to buy a case of their ale. It is so much cheaper near Rome, NY then in central Jersey. They are located in Utica I believe. I’ll have to look for their Porter; though so far I have never seen a 6 pack of it near me.
I like porters a lot! I find them more drinkable than their more extreme cousins, the stouts*, where it often seems that American brewers are in an arms race to see who can brew the darkest, thickest, highest-gravity monster.
Some good porters I enjoy (that are generally available across the US):
Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Sierra Nevada Porter
they are actual cousins; Arthur Guinness got his start making porters before creating the first “stout” by adding unmalted dark roasted barley to the mash…
No they are not cousins; they are an arbitrary distinction that is as much marketing as anything of substance. The only distinction is that historically stout was a stronger porter. Stouts existed before Guinness began adding unmalted dark roasted barley to the mash: “Guinness in particular does not appear to start using roasted barley in its stouts until around 1930.”
It’s definitely smoother and a bit sweeter than the Sierra Nevada porter, which has a bit of a hop bite to it. I also quite like the Anchor Porter, if you can find it. You might enjoy that one. I’ve never had the Yuengling or the GW to compare, though. The Baltic porters are almost syrupy in their sweetness. I like them a lot, but only one, and then I need to wash it down with a lager or something light and crisp.
Porter is the category my brewing partner and I won Best of Show with at the Southern California Regional Homebrew Competition a few years back. A raspberry version of the same brew took gold in the fruit beers category the same year.
If I feel the urge to drink a commercial porter, Samuel Smith’s is the one I choose.
I love porters. Anything that is not too strong on the bitter or hoppy side is good with me. I enjoy roasted or smokey flavors the most. I’m not familiar with the ones you mention, but here are some top ones for me:
My current favorite beer is actually a stout, but I still feel that Denali Brewing Co’s Chuli Stout deserves mention here in this thread.
I’m doing a small micro brewery tour tomorrow of 4 places, I hope to find at least 1 good local porter or ale.
So far it seems Sierra Nevada is well liked, I’m drinking one now. Same as reported earlier, fine with the meal, but without the meal the aftertaste is unpleasant to me. Still way better than drinking Coors or Miller as an example but not enjoyable.
I am going to see who carries the Samuel Smith’s Porter locally and try it out.
Stegmaier Porter is my favorite but if you keep any porter fairly warm (say 55-60 degrees) I can live with it. Give me one ice cold and I’ll hide it somewhere for a few hours.
I am strongly seconding the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald porter, it is a terrific go-to, and fortunately widely available in my area.
When I can find it, I like Founder’s (Michigan) porter, it’s pretty substantial, you definitely taste the hops but I don’t think it’s too hoppy.
While this was a limited edition so not that helpful, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mary’s Maple Porter from Brooklyn Brewery. I wouldn’t normally say I felt a special need to have a maple-flavored porter, but this was like a hint of maple, and overall really nice. I would love to find something similar.
I really like the Vanilla Porter from Breckenridge Brewery. I added a couple bottles to try in a 6-pick-your-own and liked it so much I keep it stocked in the fridge now.
I’m not clear on the distinction between porters and stouts. I enjoy many stouts, but a lot of porters taste kind of like olives to me for some reason.
Anyway, Boulevard’s Bully Porter from just down the road in Kansas City is not bad.
Nor am I. As others mentioned, stouts used to be higher ABV. I really like some of both. Others, not so much. I don’t really know what all the tastes are that I’m tasting in order to better describe what I do and don’t like. I should start keeping notes on brands.
Moose Drool is a (damn good) brown ale, not a porter. I don’t think Big Sky has a regular porter, although they do have some seasonal porters.
My tastes run pretty much in line with OneCentStamp here, with my favorite being Black Butte. And I’ll usually try a brew-pub’s porter whenever I have a chance - I’ll always give it a shot if it’s on a nitro line.
The two I mentioned in the Op have a hint of caramel flavor. (Yuengling Dark Brewed Porter and the General Washington’s Tavern Porter). The GW has molasses in it giving a little of a caramel taste I feel. The Yuengling lists as being brewed with caramel and dark roasted malts. There is a lot of variation from what I have found so far. I had an Italian porter last month that was fruity, it was poor but potable.
I’ve notice the ABV range of porters are pretty extreme; anywhere from around 3.6 to 11.5. So that is not it anymore as you said. I’ve seen some listed as 14.5 ABV on the Beer adviser.
