Looking around the beer section at Jungle Jims the other day I came across their “promotion cart”. It was full of 22 ounce bottles of a beer I’ve never heard of. Black Eye Ale from Mendocino Brewing Co. in Saraoga Springs, NY. Two things came into play that formed my decision, 1) the word “ALE”. I love ales, and 2) $1.50 a bottle. In other words, a cheap ale that I’ve not yet tried.
It poured a dark chocolate brown with a decent caramel colored head. It smelled like somebody wrapped up a bunch of peanuts in a piece of leather. (for you beer snobs out there, I would say “bready malts”. Kinda.) The head had a nice lacing the whole way down and the aroma didn’t fade either. It had a pretty heavy feel on the palate for an ale, more like a stout or a porter. I was really in the mood for a nice ale and was expecting the dry hoppiness that ales produce but all I could taste was the malts. And the thick taste laste a little too long for me.
My overall impression was that if it was called a stout, I would have waited until I was eating good homecooked beef stew or pork roast. Then I would have thought it was a good beer.  Instead, I prepared myself for an evening on the porch with a good cigar and an ale, only to be surprised the lack of “Ale-ness” in it. Had Mendocino labeled it right, I would have rated it higher, but I felt like I was a little misled by the name. Maybe a mediocre winter time brew but nothing special.
P-O-R-C-H Rating O+
Posted by Mr. Porch in Ales, Beer Reviews
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