J. Wakefield Welcome to the Thunderdome
I’ve had some thick beers in my time, but J. Wakefield’s Welcome to the Thunderdome drinks more like a chocolate milk shake than any other. This 12% ABV imperial porter is massively full bodied and viscous, looking and tasting more stoutish than porterish. It’s also a beer with a healthy amount of sweetness that makes it more than ideal for a post-meal dessert beer.
Thunderdome is brewed with coconut, Tahitian vanilla bean, and coffee which, when combined with it’s heftiness, only adds to its dessert-like character. The aroma on this big beer is fairly straightforward, but once it hits the tongue, you’re greeted with cocoa, dark roast coffee, toasted coconut and a hint of vanilla. The porter has a solid amount of sweetness that is tempered gently with a good bit of hop bitterness before everything glides smoothly to the long lasting and warming finish.
J. Wakefield’s big, imperial porter hits all the right spots for a post-dinner treat. It’s thick bodied, sweet and full-flavored. I think the only thing missing from the experience is a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. That would have sent this experience into the stratosphere.