Reminiscent of reserved brown ale with its caramelized almond-hazelnut toasting and roasted hop setting. Sweet honeyed oats buttress unrefined chocolate malts and dried tobacco bitterness mildly coercing slight vegetal aftertaste.

Frothy ebony-hued ruby-highlighted dry porter pleats sour coffee-malt seduction and nutty roast over earthy bottom. But heavy carbonation and acidic sharpness overwhelm creamy texture, thin hop din, and black licorice finish.

Immaculate sweet-scented dark brown porter brewed in the Windy City since the 1800’s in the Great English tradition, Big Shoulders leads with a great chocolate punch and finishes with charred hop assertiveness. Though stout-like with its thick mocha presence and caramel malts, it’s smooth going down and perfect as a crossover. Brewery defunct: 2002.

Contract brewed for Lotso Lox Brewery, this black beauty lives up to its bagel-centric promise. ‘Well bread beer’ piles heavy maple oats and black chocolate malts atop pumpernickel, marble rye, and whole-wheat illusions. At busy finish, black honey bittering reigns in black currant souring and dry coffee bean remnant. Brewery defunct: 2009.

Slender dark amber complements smoked malt dryness with roasted mocha-chocolate notion, but weak toasted barley-hop backbone too light-bodied for its class. Brewery deunct: 2008.

Deep tan-headed dark brown porter with heady mocha latte palate, pleasant hop bitterness, and rich coffee finish offers stiff bite. Mellow chocolate undercurrent complements obtrusive heaviness.

Dried-out chocolate mustiness, harsh walnut-hazelnut astringency, dismal burnt caramel resignation, and latent black coffee scud thaw initial frothy mocha rigor of lactic brown-bodied deficiency. Earthen peat, charred wood, and black tar backend roasted barley-hop sear.

Maple-sapped barley-hopped brown-bodied ruby-tinged porter benefits greatly from wood-smoked lactic froth and firm nutty bottom. Cocoa-powdered brown chocolate roast creeps through effusive walnut-chestnut-hazelnut-peanut shell illusions. At sturdy finish, burnt coffee souring and lingered anise bittering counter chocolate milkshake-like sweetness.

Pine-scented maroon-burgundy hued port with amber highlights maintains pliable Scotch twist, smoky maple-molasses influence, roasted nut dryness, and burnt hop sop intensified by chocolate seed/ coffee bean souring. Lactose vanilla-caramel finish amply sweetens creamy medium body.

Comparably light-bodied for its class, though ‘dark, rich, sexy’ chestnut porter sustains soothing nuttiness and burnt coffee restraint ’til black chocolate lines brief finish.

Despite unassuming aroma, this perfect porter strikes an imposing mocha vibe, as distinct caramel chocolate malts and dried fruits receive bitter hop insurgence. Sweet barley roast and sticky resin-thick yeast enchant mellowing black coffee finish. Full-bodied, rich, heavy, and a bit nutty.

Ice coffee smoothness and brown chocolate sweetness closer to creamy milk stout. Mellow nuttiness and vinous fruiting embitter clean mocha finish of smoke-scented black body.