The Kernel, Export India Porter, 5.8%abv. (Modern Porter)

Purchased at the Kernel Brewery in London recently, bottle-conditioned in a 500ml brown bottle; at 5.8%abv., bottled on 28/01/13, BB 28/01/14, served cool in a pint size jug. Note: the back label specifies the hop varieties used are Bramling Cross, Columbus, and Topaz.

4/5 Appearance: super dark brown in colour, it looks almost impenetrable as the body is quite murky due to the yeast sediments in the bottle; a creamy dark tan head sustains surprisingly well. Looking handsome for a Porter.

4/5 Smell: beautifully roasty coffee-ish with aroma of charred woodchips, roasted nut shells, old leather, stinky burned tobacco, and very very dark chocolates, underlined by a whiff of refreshingly fruity and even piney hop fragrance, which is lifted into the air by a few good swirls. The level of hop content is impossible to miss.

4/5 Taste: very soft on the palate, the foretaste is roasty, coffee-ish with a relatively light body of dark malts and a sound level of fruity acidity, then the palate is soon engulfed by a very chewy, dry, charred-woody, coffee-ish and even tannic bitterness which literally sweeps away any remnant flavour elements in the way… The lingering flavour of black malts, charred woodiness, and bitter herbs lasts all too well, welcomingly so.

4/5 Mouthfeel &4.5/5 Overall: this is a robust, potent dark ale, which I suppose is what one would’ve termed as a Stout Porter in the 18^th-19^th century. The hop level is witnessed vividly on the palate and partially on the nose, but nothing really prepares me for the incredibly lengthy and powerful bitterness at the finish of each sip. The bitterness stems from the good quality black malts and even roasted barley, I suspect, as well as from the good input of hops which is obviously high on the bitterness level and lesser on aroma. In many ways, this is much more like a Dry Stout than an English Porter, due to the lack of dark fruits flavour and stale sourness or acidity achieved through other means than mixing one’s dark ale with pale and stale ales. That said, this medium+ bodied Export India Porter is a successful product in my eyes, and it seems to fare well in this bottle-conditioned form~ Definitely I’d love to try the ale on tap next time I visit the Brewery itself!

--Yau (04/03/2013)