According to Beer Advocate it is 4.0% ABV.
Yep, 4.0%. Utah is a 3.2 state (ABW, which equates to 4% ABV). All tapped beers in bars and restaurants, and all beers for sale in grocery stores, can’t exceed that. Most local breweries brew higher gravity beers for sale at liquor stores or direct from the brewery.
Incidentally, Polygamy Porter is one of my go-to dark beers for session drinking or food pairing; I just didn’t mention it because it isn’t widely available outside Utah. Good stuff.
Their nitro version is apparently 6%. http://www.wasatchbeers.com/beers.aspx#polygamy-nitro
I’m not sure how that works wrt the booze laws. I’ve had it at Squatter’s Pub in SLC.
Utopias isn’t really best thought of as a beer, even though it technically is. It’s more like a port or something in that general category than a beer. I had a bottle gifted to me, and it’s something you drink maybe 2-3 oz at a time. It’s something you savor, let linger, and take your time with. It’s nice to finish off a meal with.
My sweet spot for ABV is more like 5-6% for a session beer. I’ve had a few English ales at around 3.5%, but I typically find them too weak and watery for my tastes. Somewhere around 4-4.2% is about as low as I like to go. That said, it would be nice to have a few more lower alcohol brews on the market, because the high alcohol end of the market is over-saturated.
I don’t know where the OP is, but Southern Tier isn’t hard to find in Dallas. It’s not at convenience stores or the run-of-the-mill grocery stores, but at beer/liquor stores and upscale grocery stores, it’s pretty common.
I (well, my wife) have a bomber of their “Warlock” stout in the fridge, and I polished off my second “Krampus” Imperial Helles from them about a month ago.
And Wasatch’s Polygamy Porter is kind of in the same boat as Southern Tier- common, but not super-common here in Dallas. The porter is the only Wasatch beer I recall seeing though.
I do find it interesting that the Odell products have achieved the absurdly ubiquitous status around here in about a year and a half- now Wal-Mart carries their 90 Shilling, and many gas stations actually carry it as well.
I believe Squatter’s Pub (which is like 2 miles from my house) may get some sort of brewpub exemption because they brew it onsite. I really can’t parse Utah’s alcohol laws; they’re just as Byzantine and senseless as their reputation.
I’ve enjoyed Sierra Nevada’s and Anchor’s porters (bottles); didn’t notice any harshness with the Sierra. Wasn’t overly impressed with Yuengling’s offering, although the Black&Tan is my go-to cheap beer from the supermarket.
I really liked Fuller’s Porter on tap and will actively seek it out in the future. Not happy with the overabundance of chocolate flavor in porters and stouts recently…a little is OK but some have bordered on the ridiculous. Also, I get ticked off at trendy bars/gastropubs/etc that have 20 IPAs, three fruit beers and nothing darker than a cheap brown ale. :mad:
A couple other porters I’ve had recently that stood out were Cigar City Puppy’s Breath Robust Porter (tap) and Smuttynose Robust Porter (bottle).
It appears that there is not a single Saranac porter. The variety they stick in the winter beers sampler package is “Maple Porter” but they also make a Caramel Porter and something called a 4059 Porter. Hmm, will have to check those latter two out myself!
Yeah, there are many Belgian styles that don’t seem to ever come in under 8% ABV. I love too many of them to forgo them based on their alcohol content. And if I ever see another bottle of Thomas Hardy’s, (bottled at 11.7%, with yeast in the bottle , so it only goes up from there, and supposedly matures for years), I’ll buy it up and drink it, and it’s purely based on my memory of its taste (ok, getting hammered off a single bottle factors into it, too).
Samuel Smith’s porter is great, but I’m inclined to think they’re the benchmark of many styles. One that’s produced stateside that I love very much is Real Ale’s Coffee Porter, the coffee compliments the bitter malts. I’ve had many coffee beers that I wasn’t fond of, but this one is really balanced and drinkable. It’s not too strong at 5.6% ABV, but my fokloric understanding was that stouts were under 5%, and porters were above that (but yeah, it seems pretty arbitrary).
Not worth a new thread, but I tried a kinda cool stout last night. Huy Fong (Sriracha producer) joined with Rogue Ales to produce a Sriracha Stout.
I bought a bomber bottle and had it chilled. I eventually had to buy a second bottle, because everyone wanted a sip. A stout with a kick; I liked it.
Just wanted to step in and throw in my endorsement for the Edmund Fitzgerald. Very nice.
CHILLED? :eek:
Binghams in the UK do one called Hot Dog Chilli Stout that sounds similar. No idea what kind of chilli they use.
I see some nice porters in my local from time to time. The most recent was Black Jack Porter from Flack Manor Brewery. Fuller’s London Porter is great when you can find it in cask conditioned form. It seems the Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter is easier to get in the US than it is here, I’ve not seen it in shops in ages.
Well, taken off the 74F shelf and taken down to 56 or so…
Ah. Cellar temperature. All right, then.
I bought a 6 of the Saranac Caramel Porter yesterday and it is quite good. I like it as much as the Yuengling though it is a different taste.
Well, if stouts are allowed into consideration, Old Rasputin by North Coast is amazing. Plus, my local store has them at 4x12oz for $7. Yum.
I have just started seeing the *ROGUE Sriracha Hot Stout Beer * in the stores in my area and I am very curious as to how spicy (hot versus other) it is?
Imperial stout. That means more alcohol (9%, which is on the lower end of an Imperial). But it’s good too. A bar I know had it on draft (16 oz?) for $3.50. Now I think it’s $4. Not as cheap as your price, but still bar cheap.
After experimenting with a lot of different beers (I can enjoy an IPA now and again, but I don’t feel the love for them overall that many people do) and having thought myself a chocolate or oatmeal stout guy for a few years, for about the past five years I’ve settled on this exact beer as my go-to. Yummy stuff, although I can’t afford to drink it often.
Not all that “hot”, it’s actually kinda subtle. I’m a big fan of Rogue’s collaboration and I’d put this one second; right after bacon-maple, but before pretzel-chocolate-raspberry, chocolate-peanut butter-banana, and lemon-chiffon crueller ales.