Feb 25, 2016

Hops & Grain Porter Culture

I’m a big Baltic porter fan. It’s a style that I have enjoyed for many, many years with Sinebrychoff Porter held as the standard and favorite example of the style. Hops & Grain own take on the style, Porter Culture, doesn’t quite live up to those lofty expectations, but is damn good in its own right.

This 6.5% ABV beer is brewed with pilsner malt, Munich malts, chocolate wheat and de-bittered black malt to build a solid structure for a balancing hop bite (35 IBU) that arrives late. That malt bill also gives Porter Culture a fairly robust character that I particularly enjoyed while hints of tobacco and dark fruits linger in the background.

Hops & Grain have themselves a tasty brew with Porter Culter. It’s got just enough robustness and late hop character to keep things interesting yet also balanced enough to be more approachable than some examples of the style. Needless to say, the sample I reviewed didn’t last too long.

This is a review of a promotional sample.