Maine Beer Company King Titus
Maine Beer Company already makes an excellent stout in the not-so-mean, Mean Old Tom. And now I can safely say that they also make a damn fine porter. In fact, it’s one of the best I’ve had in a very long time. King Titus (apparently named after a silverback gorilla) is a 7.5% ABV robust American porter that is every bit of what a good porter should be.
Earthy, assertive and full-flavored, King Titus is just the porter one needs to sit down with on a cold Winter’s evening. It’s rich without being overly so. It’s robust, but not overly tough. And it delivers a great array of flavors that any fan of the style should desire in their porter. And it’s all done without the brewery throwing bourbon barrels at it or cranking the alcohol to 11. It’s just a great example of a quality beer.
Appearance
The brew pours super dark cola brown in color with a large stack of rocky brown foam that dropped fairly quickly.
Aroma
This beer smells great with an earthy quality that delivers hints of coffee, cocoa, tobacco, molasses and a touch of a hop presence.
Taste
King Titus is a bold and robust porter that brings all of the characteristics of the nose (tobacco, chocolate, coffee) to your palate with an earthy nature. Hints of a roast and vanilla are also present. The beer is moderately sweet up front and fairly drying in the lasting finish as a lingering bitterness hangs around a bit. As a good porter should be, this one is full bodied and packed with flavor.
Overall
Often times we, as beer drinkers, get a little wrapped up in seeking out the rarest of the rare, the most sought after of the barrel-aged or the biggest in terms of alcohol. Sometimes, we just need to chill the f#$& out and simply enjoy a well crafted beer. King Titus goes beyond your standard porter in delivering a full flavored and robust beer without resorting to going to extremes. It’s beers like this that need to embraced instead of what a bunch of online forums say you should be drinking.
Rating: 4.25/5
