Sunday Night Suds - Holiday Porter

This week's Sunday Night Suds review continues the holiday theme by looking at another of the Samuel Adams limited editions - the Holiday Porter.

As opposed to the Samuel Adams Honey Porter, the gents at Beer Advocate classify the Samuel Adams Holiday Porter as an American Porter (for more details on the Honey Porter and the general definition of a classic English Porter, please click here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/09/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-honey.html ). In distinguishing the American Porter class of beers, the experts at BA explain:

Inspired from the now wavering English Porter, the American Porter is the ingenuous creation from that. Thankfully with lots of innovation and originality American brewers have taken this style to a new level. Whether it is highly hopping the brew, using smoked malts, or adding coffee or chocolate to compliment the burnt flavor associated with this style. Some are even barrel aged in Bourbon or whiskey barrels. The hop bitterness range is quite wide but most are balanced. Many are just easy drinking session porters as well.

Unlike the beers with exotic additives in the BA review, this American Porter derives its flavor completely from the hops and malts added to the brew. In contrast, the Saranac Caramel Porter (previously reviewed here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/03/sunday-night-suds-saranac-caramel.html) derives its flavor from caramel which is added to the brew process.

Like many of the darker beers, this is not something that you would just hand to someone looking to try beer for the first time. The beer itself pours nearly black and has has a deep complex flavor. The alcohol content also is on the high side as it is 5.8% abv. I enjoyed mine tonight by itself in a pilsner glass. I would not suggest pairing this with dinner fare, although it might do well as an accompaniment to chocolate babka.

Samuel Adams Holiday Porter is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Holiday Porter, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/20564.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

Finally, if you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

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