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Southern Tier Raspberry Porter

March 7th, 2008

I’m normally not a huge fan of flavored porters. Most of them end up being too heavy on the added flavor for my taste (I’m looking at YOU Breckenridge Vanilla Porter). This offering from Southern Tier, on the other hand, is chock full of win.

Appearance:  Pours a deep brown with plenty of ruby hints. This may be due to the lighting in the room. Clearly, not as dark as your average porter. A vigorous pour yields a two finger head.
Smell: Raspberry is the first aroma that hits your nose. Hints of roasted malt in the background.

Taste: In the mouth, some good roasted malt flavors, but a bit thin. The finish is all raspberry, but not a mouth-coating, syrupy taste. There are lingering hints of roasted malt as well, but raspberry tends to lightly dominate. I have no other way to describe it, but it’s a light lingering flavor, not some heavy-handed, tongue-punishing fruit bomb.

Mouthfeel: Rather thin for a porter, but it seems to work. I’d like a bit more malt on the palate but you can’t ask for everything in a fruit beer.

Overall: A solid flavored porter, much less aggressive than many other fruit-based beers, with more balance. Overall, I’d give this one a B-. A bit too thin and not enough strong malts to really be a must-drink.

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Entry Filed under: Beer