Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter

Deschutes Brewery
Black Butte Porter
Bend, Oregon

www.deschutesbrewery.com

The Meek
Shall Inherit
Well, some pretty dull beer.

So grandly opens the Deschutes Brewery website. I like them even more.

I fell in love with Black Butte Porter – and Deschutes Brewery – while travelling through Washington State a few years ago.  I’m a gutsy beer girl – intense IPAs, stoic Stouts, and potent Porters – like Black Butte.  Therefore, I was over the moon to see Deschutes back at Great Canadian Beer Fest this weekend.

For those unfortunate ticketless folks out there, The Great Canadian Beer Festival has grown to be one of North America’s (the worlds’s?) must-attend beer events. People from all over the globe seek out Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park annually every September (first weekend past Labour Day). From humble beginnings in 1993, to an immediate sell-out event, this year will see over 55 craft breweries from North America serve up their top brews (some in cask) to over 8000 happy (some in costume) folks.

Founded in 1988 in Bend, Oregon and named after the mighty Deschutes River, the brewery too has grown from small beginnings to great things. As of 2010, it was the fifth-largest craft brewery and eleventh-largest overall brewery in the United States (opening a Deschutes brew pub in the Pearl District of Portland along the way). Earlier this year they announced plans to expand their Bend brewing facility by 6,750 square feet, allowing an additional 105,000 barrels to be brewed annually.

More barrels = more Black Butte = more happiness. This Butte is a beaut – glowing dark brown in the glass with a heady nose of coffee, bittersweet cocoa and roasted sweet malts. Layers of toasted hazlenuts, more bittersweet chocolate, black earth, sweet espresso and roasted maltiness on the silky, luscious, medium bodied palate.  The depth of flavour is impressive, as is the balance between weight (mid), alcohol (mod), carbonation (barely) and complexity (scads).  A few local liquor stores carry this, and hopefully that will increase with the Brewery’s expansion over the coming months. If you’re lucky enough to be holding a ticket for this weekend’s GCBF, do be sure to visit the Deschutes booth.

Rating:  (click here to see what our wine ratings mean)

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Deschutes Brewery Black Butte Porter

This Butte is a beaut – glowing dark brown in the glass with a heady nose of coffee, bittersweet cocoa and roasted sweet malts. Layers of toasted hazlenuts, more bittersweet chocolate, black earth, sweet espresso and roasted maltiness on the silky, luscious, medium bodied palate.  The depth of flavour is impressive, as is the balance between weight (mid), alcohol (mod), carbonation (barely) and complexity (scads).