Name

Another weekend down.  This weekend I had some friends over for a BBQ and sour beer tasting.  I’ve been collecting up a number of good sour beers for this specific reason.  Although a few friends couldn’t make it we had a good time and sampled some pretty awesome beers.

My friend Blake brought over a number of non sours, to break things up you know?  He left them over so I felt I had to open up one for my Sunday.  Sure enough one caught my eye that I’ve wanted to try for a little bit now.

I’ve become a fan of the straight forward Narragansett Lager over the past few months for it’s light body but full flavor.  It’s price point is pretty sweet too.  But when I heard we would be getting their porter I was very much looking forward to it.  I needed a new sessionable porter ever since the local Anchor distributor decided to no longer carry Anchor Porter down here.  But I had never gotten around to picking up the ‘Gansett one.  Luckily Blake brought one by, it wasn’t drunk and I was happy to find it a good home.

I popped the tall boy can open and poured it into my pint glass.  It arrives a mostly black color with some brown hues in there.  A big, thick light brown head sits on top and leaves a lot of lacing on the glass.

The nose is faint but you can pick up roasted malts and hints of caramel.

The taste starts off with a surprising hop bite then goes to the roasted malts.  Some hints of cocoa, caramel and vanilla in there too.  Then it finishes with another hit of the hop bitterness.  Medium in body.

Was caught a bit off guard by the hoppy character in there.  I wasn’t expecting it at all.  But it wasn’t a bad thing.  Add a nice layer of something extra to the beer.

Overall I really enjoyed the beer.  I was sad I only had one can.  I think I may have found my replacement for Anchor Porter in the meantime.  It had a lot of flavor to it but wasn’t very big in body.  So that made it quite sessionable.

Grade - B-

Name

It is the start of the new week.  This can be good or bad depending on the person.  Many suffer from what is called a case of the “Mondays.”  But where I come from you get your ass kicked for saying something like that.

But for me it should be a good week.  Firstly I am back at Dos Beerigos site as the guest blogger this week.  This will mark my third time teaming up on the blog with Phil to review brews.

Secondly I have decided to dedicate this week on my blog to a brewery that in it’s short time of existence has taken the craft beer world by storm and helped establish Florida as not just another state anymore.  That brewery is none other than Cigar City Brewing.  So each day this week you will get a review of a different Cigar City brew.  And what do you know, I have one right here for you.

Jose Marti is an America Porter that CCB released last year.  At the time it was unknown if it was going to be a seasonal, one time or regular brew.  After it’s success across the state it appears to have gotten the nod as a semi regular brew.  Pretty much they will brew it through out the year but not as regularly as the two main regulars (Jai Alai and Maduro).

A recent trip to Sarasota for a #FlaBrew meet up (I’m going to try to get an article on that up soon) took us also to the Sarasota branch of Total Wine and More.  There I picked up a number of Cigar City brews that haven’t quit made it south yet.  Jose Marti was one of those beers.

So I cracked off the cap and poured the pretty much all black beer into my Cigar City snifter.  It made a good sized light brown head atop the brew.

The smell was a mix of coffee, vanilla, cocoa and roasted malts.  The coffee scent is a bit more prominent than I like for my taste because well, I don’t like coffee.  But we move on.

The taste is much of the same as the smell.  You know by now I hate saying that because it translates so wonderfully to text when writing (end sarcasm).  But it really is a big blend of the flavors that were present in the taste.  The coffee taste has a bitterness to it though.  It is kind of like a mix of bittersweet chocolate and coffee.  The body is not that heavy at all and makes it pretty easy to drink.

So how was Jose Marti overall?  Did I hate it because of the strong coffee qualities?  No not at all.  I actually didn’t even find them terribly strong.  Yes there is a definite coffee smell and taste to it but it is not like a Terrapin Wake n Bake or Southern Tier Jahvah.  The cocoa and vanilla flavors balance it out to make it drink easier.

So that makes one brew down and 4 more to go this week.  Are you looking forward to all this Cigar City goodness?  I sure am.

Grade - B+

Appearance – Pours a very dark brown color with a nice sized light brown head that does stick around a bit a leave some lacing on the glass.

Smell – Roasted and chocolate malts up front.  There is a slight bit of coffee smell in the back as well.

Taste – Again we find the roast and chocolate malts but there is a nice sweetness to it as well.  A little bit of nuttiness in there as followed by some coffee and this is a really nice taste.

We I visited the original Yuengling brewery a few years back I sampled this in the sample room and loved it.  Unfortunately it was no where to be found in South Florida.  We could only get the Lager, Light Lager and Black & Tan in stores here despite their major brewery in Tampa.  We on our trip up to Tampa I was thrilled to see six packs of Porter and jumped on it.  Now that I have brought it back I am now seeing Porter and Lord Chesterfield Ale hitting shelves down here as well.  While it is still worth it that I picked this up in Tampa I am so happy to see we are finally getting other stuff from America’s Oldest Brewery.  This is my favorite of their brews.

Overall Grade – A