Beer #12 Lake of Bays Brewing Company's Mocha Porter

 So onto present number two from a very special lady. Lake of Bays is one of Ontario's newest cottage breweries. Situated in Baysville in between Bracebridge and Huntsville (yes last year's G8 headquarters)
The Beer is a combined effort from the brewery www.lakeofbaysbrewing.com and a local coffee roaster in Bracebridge Diesel House www.dieselhousecoffeeroasters.ca

Coffee and porters are are natural match because the long dark roasted barley that goes into the dark ales will often give of notes of chocolate, smoke, and .... well coffee. Porters themselves have been around since the early 1700's in England where a special re-vitalising dark ale was brewed for the "stout" men on the dock and the rivers who loaded and unloaded the ships. This beer came to be synonymous with this job title of the men and hence was called porter. Later this beer would catch the attention of an ingenious young Irishman named Arthur who would base his ale on the porter. His stout would go on to define a nation and become the world's best selling dark beer. I think you have already guessed his last name was Guinness. Note the names porter and stout
are often used interchangably. The porter name was
kept mainly in England whereas in Dublin Guinness used the term stout.

First look at today's offering we notice that the beer is far from black. It is in fact a deep mocha brown it has a tan head with small bubble and no "cascade" of froth one would find in other porters and stouts. The head dies down quickly to a quarter inch and retains its rich colour. ABV is 5.2% which is low for a traditional porter as the original beer was often brewed up to 6.6%.

The first sniff is smoky and chocolate with a hint of fresh brewed espresso. Taking our first sip the smokiness is rein-forced as is the dark chocolate, breaking away into a nice dark-roasted coffee finish. Slight bitter coffee aftertaste but a clean mouthfeel, hint of smoke lingers in the throat. Aeration brings out a sweetness, rum and demerara sugar. after a few minutes a light honey develops in the background. The beer is light bodied and fruity a very good example of a well done British style ale.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: Pass
Cost: Pass (Well it should... I got it free! but for a 750 ml bottle I believe it's $6.95)
Colour: Exceptional (Nice brown the mocha lives up to it's name)
Beer Style: Exceptional
Re-order: Pass ( I couldn't do another one today, but maybe tomorrow, and if the temperature hits the plus side again...no thanks)
Experience: Pass

High marks again today. For a young company, this is an excellent offering I enjoyed my taste and look forward to visiting the new brewery, and having a sample off the keg, just as a beer like this deserves to be tasted.

Cheers
CJT

Later this week Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout.... I'm getting tingles! And yes we will crack the 18 yo Ola Dubh before the week is out.