Triple Play Fan Pack: Bricks & Mortar

Bricks & Mortar is Left Field Brewery’s coffee porter, brewed with beans from Pilot Coffee Roasters. The Torontonian beer comes comes in 355mL cans and checks in at 6%.

B&M has a cracklin’ dry nose built around a wealth of espresso and roasted malt notes. It has a rich coffee bean flavour, a toasted (almost burnt) malt subtext, and just a whisper of sweetness to add a bit of balance. Bitterness is more than evident at the back, manifested as elements that evoke a cup of French roast.

 

Things I liked about B&M: strong coffee game; decent ABV, and robustly bitter finish. Thing I was less wild about: burnt malt elements, both in aroma and flavour. This beer could have been smoother and differently balanced. Still, as coffee porters go, I’d recommend this one based on its minimal sweetness alone. Left Field makes great beer, so I always feel like I’m splitting hairs when I get critical, but I’ve had better from them.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Trash Panda Porter

The only thing one needs on a miserably cold day in April characterized by snow and freezing rain (other than a nice, peaty scotch) is a nice coffee porter. Enter Trash Panda Porter, a brew “seasoned with cold steeped Ethiopian beans”. Born in Toronto to The Six Brewing Co., Trash Panda is a 6% alcohol porter. I picked up a massive 750mL oil drum of a can from the bottle shop attached to the brew pub. The beer inside poured with a deep mahogany colour, topped with a thin flourish of off-white head.

Trash Panda has an agreeably rich aroma that straddles coffee and chocolate notes. The flavour is refined and enjoyable, though it is less emphatic than I’d have asked. The beer has coffee elements in good measure, as well as some malty tones and a touch of cocoa, but it could have been more bitter and ballsy. The mouthfeel was a bit on the thin side for a porter, but not distressingly so.

I thought that Trash Panda was a pretty good beer—not game-changing or innovative, but certainly pleasant. As I said, it would have been a stronger effort with a greater emphasis on hops and unbridled java bitterness. The 30 IBUs listed on the can just aren’t enough. Still, TP tasted nice, if a bit mild. It certainly brought me a little cheer on a brutal “spring” day.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Einstök Ölgerd Toasted Icelandic Porter

A benefit of being a beer blogger is that when people see interesting brews, they often pick you up a bottle. That’s how I ended up with a 330mL bottle of the Toasted Icelandic Porter from Einstök Ölgerd, all the way from Akureyri, Iceland. In fact, the kind soul in question, A.J., doesn’t even drink beer herself. She just saw it and thought of me. What a saint!

According to the bottle, this 6% alcohol ale is brewed with Icelandic roasted coffee. The beer has a lovely dark brown hue and pours with a lush tan head. It has a rich, roasted malt nose that is supported by chocolate and java notes. The flavour kicks off with a rich and velvety malt and mocha combo. As things progress, this gives way to a modestly bitter finish—the only real weak spot of this brew—which probably could have been more assertive.

All things considered, this Icelandic offering was a pretty charming ale. It could have been more bold through the finish, perhaps, but the front end was dynamic and enticing.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Bricks and Mortar

Show me a 650mL bottle of a coffee porter brewed in Ontario and I'll show you a damned easy sale. Such was the case with Bricks and Mortar, a coffee porter brewed by Toronto's Left Field Brewery. I saw it, and I bought it. No hesitation at all.

At 6% alcohol, this dark ale was a near black with handsome amber highlights. It poured with a bedeviling layer of sudsy, cream-hued head. According to the bottle, this beer was brewed with freshly roasted coffee beans from a local Toronto roastery: Pilot Coffee Roasters. The result is a rich java bouquet, complimented nicely by roasted malts. The flavour is also coffee-fueled, with both bitter espresso and mellow mocha represented in equal measures. While the coffee notes are the star, the dark beer flavours that make up the foundation are also worthy of praise.

I couldn't come up with much by way of critique of this beer, other than the fact that, unlike Left Field's other offerings, this one lacked a baseball theme. One of the better coffee/beer hybrids I've ever tasted.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Full City Coffee Porter

Opaque and black, Full City Coffee Porter pours with a dense tan head. At 5.5%, this London, Ontario ale comes in 500mL bottles. It's brewed by Forked River Brewing Company.

This dark ale has a gorgeous java aroma, built atop a sweet, malty foundation. Similarly lovely is its velvety smooth mouthfeel. The flavour is fine, too, though not quite as rich as the nose. It's got a hearty dose of slightly bitter coffee, as well as loads of malt.

Nice beer, good strength, with serious coffee elements, Full City is a quality coffee porter. I'd have liked to have gotten some details about the provenance of the coffee, though. Seems like a missed opportunity.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.