So here I am once more in the playground of the Civil Life. One more experience, one more entry in a blog, self-penned.
My first trio of Civil Life brews were comprehensively explored here.
I was keen to try their Porter Ale to discover if it was on the American side of things with lots of coffee and bitter chocolate flavors or if it had been brewed in a traditional English style. Truth be known, I'm not sure what a traditional English porter is supposed to taste like but I believe it's more like a brown ale with less flavor from black malts or anything heavily kilned. Yeah, yeah, yeah - I know this is not the OG porter. But I think this gets me in the ballpark of a modern English porter. Maybe.
My can was, er, canned on 7 November so still rather fresh. I managed to pour a lovely tan head of some size that had some staying power so I was able to get a mediocre photograph. At first blush, it looked coal black but, upon further review, I found that it was a deep mahogany and quite clear. The dark appearance made me think this was an American take on the style. I smelled plum, dark chocolate, and a hint of grass.
This stuff had a tempting smoothness to it that held back a mellow fizz. Dark chocolate, coffee, and some malt sweetness were the tastes I culled from its light-medium body. Definitely American. The malt flavors faded on the finish and were replaced by a firm dose of hoppy bitterness that had a eucalyptus thing going on, i.e. - minty but not sharp with something of a medicinal aspect to it. Fairly dry too.
This Porter Ale was good. I really enjoyed the smoothness and those coffee/dark chocolate flavors. Also, it was rather light-bodied so it went down easy. It's just that I wished those hops had a greener, more sprightly taste to them. They had a mushy, almost vegetal thing going on.
Perhaps they make an English porter too.
Why yes, I was unable to get a photograph of this beer that was in focus.
I tried Civil Life's American Brown Ale last time and was curious if this was the same brew but with oats or something entirely different. Not that my palate could really tell, mind you.
The kicker about my poor photography skills is that this beer's big, tan head looked great and had staying power giving me ample time to take a decent shot yet I was never able to wrangle adequate focus pulling out of my camera app. Like the previous brown ale, this stuff had a gorgeous deep amber hue accented by stunning clarity allowing me to see some bubbles inside.
While it looked the same as the American brown, it smelled quite differently, more conventional. Some caramel, milk chocolate along with a hint of stone fruit, and a touch of grass. A decent fizz couldn't keep all that luscious oaty smoothness down. Milk chocolate, a general roasty flavor, and a little caramel were kept in check by a good dose of herbal hoppiness. I was happy that it never got too sweet. Nice malt flavors but the body was lightish.
Sweetness and malt tastes faded at the end allowing the hops to come to the fore with a generous amount of bitterness that made it fairly dry.
Definitely not an adulterated American Brown Ale. With the smoothness and prominent milk chocolate taste, it felt rather indulgent drinking this stuff. The hops made for a nice counterpoint but that chocolate flavor was a bit too strong for me. A good beer but only one, please.
I held off on drinking this Burton on Holt Ale as the label described it as the brewery's "ode to the English winter warmer". "Warmer" is an apt description of the late fall weather we'd been having so I waited until an actual day that was below freezing to try this stuff.
The tempting amber liquid was topped off by more lovely tan foam. The head lasted what I think of as an average length of time allowing me to get a photograph that was more in focus that that of the oatmeal brown but still not sharp. My nose received waves of caramel and bread larded with some grassy-herbal hops. There was also a scent that I can best describe as like that of Lucky Charms - sweetish and grainy.
As expected, the body was heavier than the other brew's I'd sampled. Medium leaning towards heavy. Fizziness was restrained allowing a full dose of caramel taste along with bread. While sweet, it wasn't cloying and I suppose those peppery hops were doing something behind the scenes to make sure it didn't veer towards the treacly. A hint of leather came through on the finish but it was short-lived as a peppery wave of hop essence washed the malty flavors away. Fairly bitter and dry in the end.
As with the previous two brews, this Burton on Holt Ale was good. Not super sweet with a really nice rounded malt taste. It seemed potent but not deadly. In fact, it went down rather easily, as if the beer was distracting my tongue as warming alcohol went down with me barely noticing until the glass was mostly empty. Well played, Civil Life.
All of the beers in this trifecta were good. I was slightly disappointed that the Porter Ale was an American style beer considering the English-looking gent on the label is donning a bowler hat. But what can you do? Nothing stood out here like the American Brown Ale did in my first round of tasting.
One more Civil Life brew to go.
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