It's #FloridaBeerFriday, where we take a look at a beer brewed in the Sunshine State, giving analysis to the burgeoning craft-beer movement of Florida.
We're back this week with another entry of Florida Beer Friday. Today, we're cracking open a bottle of Cigar City Brewing's Puppy's Breath Porter, a robust porter.
According to the brewery's website, "due to their immature digestive system and their diet, the breath of a puppy can smell like coffee or chocolate."
This is a new fact for me, but it appears through dog lover forums that this is true. Good thing no one wants to make a beer flavored after my dog's breath, as it'd taste like beef giblets (don't even think about it Dogfish Head).
See also: Florida Beer: Biscayne Bay Brewing's Saison
Each year, the brewery picks a 'spokespuppy' that adorns the bottle's label, with this years pooch being Henrietta, owned by Brenton & Andrea McCoy. I hope they get a few cases of this stuff as payment.
Now, the robust porter style is one with a big roasty aroma, very dark, with black malt character. It should differentiate itself from two other sub-genres of the porter style, the brown porter (a lighter 'English' styled dark ale) and the Baltic porter (a sweeter and fuller bodied dark beer). As with many beer styles, the robust porter is "a rather broad style open to brewer interpretation," according to the Beer Judge Certification Program.
The beer pours dark and root beer black, with some transparent brown when the glass is tilted. Aroma-wise, there is bittersweet chocolate with some raisin and other dark shriveled fruits that reminds me of some Belgian porters. The flavor brings a lot of caramelized barley to the forefront with more bittersweet chocolate, toasted grain, an almond nuttiness, and roasted coffee beans to join in the fun. At 6.5% abv, it's got a light body, allowing a lot of coffee-like characters come to the forefront. For a robust porter, Cigar City has hit it squarely on the head.
Puppy's Breath Porter is available at select draft accounts and in 22 ounce 'bomber' bottles. It's a varied seasonal beer, so stocks may vary. We picked ours up a week ago for under $10.
Doug Fairall is a craft beer blogger who focuses on Florida beers, and has been a homebrewer since 2010. For beer things in your Twitter feed, follow him @DougFairall and find the latest beer pics on Clean Plate's Instagram.
Follow @CleanPlateBPB
