Last spring Sam gave me a poster to hang in my garage labeled “The Samuel Adams Color of Beer Spectrum”. On it, there is a picture of 19 of their brews. It starts on the left with their Pale Ale and gets darker as you look to the right and ends with their darkest brew, the Cream Stout.
I found the Cream Stout at my local beer store and thought I’d finally give it a try. I poured one on the porch and sat back to read my book and enjoy a nice warm spring afternoon. It had the color of a dark chocolate candy bar with a light brown head. Surprisingly, the head didn’t last all that long and it left the surface of the beer exposed to the elements. It had a nice chocolaty aroma that didn’t go away, I smelled it with every drink. It was pretty smooth on the palate and had just a little nuttiness to it’s aftertaste, an aftertaste that didn’t linger. It almost tasted like a melted, beer flavor hershey bar. I thought it was a little heavy for my taste, and would probably not get it again. But remembering my own quotation, “There is a beer and cigar for every occasion, have fun finding the occasion for every beer and cigar”, I shelved it for another day.
Well that day came the next evening when the beautiful Mrs. Porch cooked us the best meal of our lives. Swiss steak, mashed
potatoes and corn. I couldn’t have been any luckier to have had that beer on hand on the very night of the best homemade meal ever. All those thick malty characteristics fit right in with such a heavy meal. It had the classic underlying Sam Adams finish with no bad lingering aftertaste.
This is a beer to keep on hand during the fall and winter months for those nights when you sit down to a good crock pot meal.
P-O-R-C-H Rating C (Fall and Winter)
P-O-R-C-H Rating O (Spring and Summer)
Posted by Mr. Porch