Lazy Dog Porter

Lazy Dog Porter

If you live in Southern California maybe you're familiar with this place, particularly Torrance, Irvine, and, well, just click here.  I didn't expect this place to have craft beer at all (which they do have a pretty good amount) let alone craft beer with their name on it.  But I am glad they did.  So today, I got the Lazy Dog Porter made by Bay Hawk Ales brewing company in Irvine.  Well, well, well, it looks as if Bay Hawk Ales have a nice little site that details their brews--click here to see the scoop.   I am guessing I drank the Chocolate Porter, considering I had the porter, but the description is different from what I experienced with the Lazy Dog Porter.  What did I experience?  Well then let's have it.

     
Appearance

      I made this picture of the extra large persuasion because I wanted you to see that, no this picture isn't badly taken albeit through the camera on my phone once again, this porter is black.  The drink is completely opaque with a deep thick looking texture.  I wonder if this is as dark as it gets.  The color is comparable to motor oil.  I couldn't see through it at all so no telling if there were any carbonation streams, which I'm sure there were because there hasn't been a beer, minus this one, where I didn't see carbonation streams.  The head you see was the head I got.  This came from tap and was poured away from my supervision, thus, I don't know if the head was bigger or what kind of retention it had.  Hey you can't watch the bartender all the time, what are you a stalker!  No big deal, though, and they had a 22 ounce option as opposed to an American pint.  Don't remember the difference between the American pint and the English pint?  Here you go my friend, just scroll to the educational afterthought.  So how does that beer look to you?  Did you like that?  Did you think that was sexy?

Smell

     The smell was a nice chocolate smell with a little bit of a roasted nut or bean smell.  I really smelled the chocolate though.  If you are a baker, or know one, look for some semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Yeah, that's right, the kind you throw into a batch of cookie dough.  Open the bag (hopefully it's at least half full, but I'm sure you'll still smell it.  Especially if the batch is new) and stick your nose in the bag and inhale.  That's what this beer smelled like .  A thin breeze of semi-sweet chocolate.  The chocolate was the star of the smell show.  The supporting cast was a roasted smell of something.  I want to say coffee, but maybe that's because that's what the description on the menu said.  I don't really want to say coffee but more like just a roasted bean or grain of some sort.  Yeah, you're probably right in saying that's roasted malt.  Either way it smelled good.

Taste

     I have to say, as far as taste and smell going together, this one was right on the nose.  I might as well put this section and the smell section together. The star of the show was chocolate, but not like drinking chocolate fudge or being a fatty and drinking from a chocolate fondue fountain, more like drinking a more acidic Yoo-Hoo.  And if you don't know what Yoo-Hoo is, well it's a chocolate milk drink that you can never get enough of, and ma'am/sir, you're missing out.  The taste of coffee was present but stayed on the sides of the mouth.  Every time I drank, though, all I could think was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.  The malts were on point in this drink.

Mouthfeel

     The mouthfeel had a nice variety or complexity, whatever adjective you'd like to use because I honestly am not fully confident in my use of 'complex' when talking about beer--not yet at least.  The brew was thick and creamy, similar to Guinness but more carbonated, which gives more texture that can keep your tongue interested.  I, and I imagine others, can grow tired of Guinness because the mouthfeel is so smooth and I begin to feel like I'm just drinking syrup.   I grow tired of drinking it and start to feel like I need a little more excitement in my life.   Nothing wrong with Guinness, though, and I love the drink--honestly--but I like carbonation and would pick a more carbonated drink rather than Guinness.  There was a dryness to the drink which made me think of chocolate ( if that's normal or not, I'm in space).  Lastly, which I think was a nice way to end my session, the brew made my breath smell like chocolate.

Overall

     This beer was good!  I don't want to make it a favorite.  Well, no, I don't exactly want to say that.  The explanation is that this beer is different.  I wouldn't drink it as a session beer because I think the texture is too rich.  It was a heavy drink and the flavors were very robust.  For me to call it refreshing would be wrong.  It was filling.   I can drink more bottles of Guinness than this (and remember what I said earlier about getting tired of it).  Can I go so far as saying this is a sort of dessert beer?  Just like a dessert wine is sweet, this beer is sweet and I could really end a good meal with this beer as a replacement to a cupcake or cookie or something like that.  I guess it can be a more tough dessert.  I mean really, how cool can you look when you bite into a cupcake?  Do I suggest it?  Hell yeah!!  Try it; the only reason I wouldn't pick this beer before other beers is because of personal preference.  There's quality present in this brew and I really don't want to take away from that.  So go out there and take it in.


Afterthought

     Yeah I'm labeling the afterthoughts now.  Not only for easier organization but also because when I refer you to something I'm talking about that is in another blog,  you can now just scroll to the bottom and look it up with an easier time at finding it (although I understand how hard it is to avoid reading the entire article, but you know, time dictates everything).  So what are we going to talk about today?  Malts of course. I'm in my mid-twenties and only recently have attained a full understanding of what 'malt' is.  I know, and now you do if you didn't, that malts contribute the sweetness to beer--as well as candy and milkshakes and et cetera.  So I looked some stuff up for you and good old Wiki gave this nice and clean explanation: MALTS!  If you were a good student and read the entire article, then you realized that malt is not a thing but the result of a process involving grains.  The product is sugar, grain, and/or malted milk (milk shakes!). 
     Here's another thing about malts--adjuncts.  When referring to beer (I don't really know if adjuncts are included in anything else) an adjunct is an unmalted grain that can add certain flavors for beer, create a kind of retention in the head, and it also helps with cutting costs.  Just read this if you're interested: ADJUNCTS!
     So there's a little preview of Malts and Adjuncts.  You now have an extremely (and take extremely generously) basic knowledge of malts and adjuncts in reference to beer.  Here's a list of malts and adjuncts you can find in beer:  MALTS AND ADJUNCTS! That page got a little thick for me and becoming an expert that fast isn't my thing.  This is fun remember?  If you want to go get a degree in Beer go to UC Davis.  Other than that,  let's take it easy and learn as we go along.