Deschutes Black Butte Porter:
Hello fellow beer drinkers and welcome back in from the cold dark days of winter.  Come sit by the fire and grab yourself a nice dark beer and sip on it for a while.  Not sure what to pick?  Well let’s look at the Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter as a possible option for your consumption.  This beer, the first released commercially by Deschutes is billed as “radical player” that defines the adventurous spirit of it’s brewery and with a claim like that, there is a lot to live up to.  The beer pours well with a nice rich dark brown color with a khaki head that dissipates to a nice thin layering and leaves respectable leavings on the inside of the glass and a nose of subtle coffee notes and cocoa.  The beer’s initial taste is similar to a most dark beers with a good balance of smooth and roasted malts that allow the coffee and coca flavors to bloom in the mid and back tongue.  While all these things are well and good the after taste leaves something to be desired with an after taste more at home in a medicinal bottle than a beer bottle and to say that it leaves one confused to what to think of this beer.  I really liked what I was finding in the flavor profile but the after taste left me wanting to wash out the flavor quickly with another sip of beer which, come to think of it, might be by design.  Who knows but this beer is worth trying again as well as the select batch versions of the beer when I can find them.  Worth a try if you want to add another porter to your profile.