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Porters tend to be one beer’s more ambiguous styles – they share a similar space with the more widely brewed stouts and are almost “too similar” siblings.
Porters are historically explained as to being approachable, medium-bodied dark ales, lower in alcohol and bitterness than most American stouts which have gotten even bigger and more robust over the years.
Some suggest that having subtle notes of notes of roasted coffee is an essential part of what makes a porter a porter. Other brewing experts, many based in the London where the style originated in the 1800’s, would argue that the beer’s dark barley balance is what defines it.
But our take is if the brewery calls it a porter, it’s a porter, and here are 5 that we like…
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
One of America’s best porters is brewed by Deschutes, the seventh largest brewery in the country, now operating production facilities in both Bend, Oregon and Roanoke, Virginia. Balance is what defines Deschutes’s 5.2% Black Butte Porter and if you don’t like this beer, forget about it. You don’t like porters.
Anchor Porter
San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing can be rightfully credited with having created America’s first craft porter back in 1972 and it remains one of the brewery’s most popular offerings even today. Anchor Porter is 5.6% effervescing exercise in dark drinkability with a subtle caramel finish.
Beavertown Smog Rocket
One of craft beer’s most impressive porter variations comes from London-based Beavertown Brewery. And we use the word “variation” because their award-winning beer is actually a smoked porter – a more robust take on the style thanks to its use wood-smoked malt. Inspired by London’s Industrial Revolution when smog cloaked the city and brewed using nine different malts including a good chunk of smoked Rauchmaltz from Bamberg, Germany, Beavertown’s Smog Rocket is an audacious 5.4% masterpiece that pretty much “smokes” the competition!
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Cleveland, Ohio’s Great Lakes Brewing s always at its best when they take on Europe’s heritage styles and their porter is killer. Dry and clearly chocolatey, Great lakes Edmund Fitzgerald is a 5.8% American take on the classic style with an almost stout-like robustness and a welcome hop finish.
Founders Porter
Considered by many to be among the best American examples of this style ever brewed (a position only strengthened by Founders almost nationwide distribution), Founders Porter is as complex and robust as a 6.5% ABV Porter has any right to be. Some would suggest that this porter is closer to a stout in instinct, mouthfeel and proportion – but that doesn’t change how we feel about it – or its excellence.
