Tasting Notes: Allgates: Porteresque

Allgates Porteresque (England: Porter: 4.4% ABV)

Visual: Black and betrays its red elements only in the lightest touches. Frothy light brown head that last through the initial minutes.

Nose: liquorice, bitter chocolate and burnt wood.

Body: Unpleasant mouldiness, bitter and sour with slight acidic qualities. Somewhat fizzy. Crab apples.

Finish: Sour and bitter. Wood and unripe vegetation. More acid which hints at vinegar. Come coffee but these elements are mostly hidden.

Conclusion: A pretty piss poor porter, too acidy and fizzy to carry the notes properly. It tastes like it’s trying to mix Rodenbach Grand Cru with a porter and fails spectacularly.

Nothing to recommend it at all.

(Note: I do wonder if the acidity was from a yeast infection, rather than an intended quality. However I’d picked up more than one bottle which had similar flavours, so if it is an infection it had hit a run of bottles at the time)