Beer: Thinking Hard About the Weather Cocoa Porter
Brewery: Singlecut Beersmiths (Astoria, NY)
Style: Porter – American
5.5% ABV / 26 IBU

In the land of American Porters, coffee is king and chocolate has been relegated to the dungeon. This is madness for a multitude of reasons, but it boils down to the principle of two wrongs not making a right. Stouts are sweet, so coffee and espresso are the natural accompaniments. Porters, on the other hand, are comparatively dry and slightly bitter. Roasted malt is the typical base for a porter, so the flavor profile of coffee beans is already in there. Thinking Hard About the Weather Cocoa Porter pairs the bitterness of the roast with a velvety chocolate flavor derived from cacao nibs and vanilla. True to its name–an homage to New Order–this beer is the perfect kiss of chocolate.

This magical potion from Singlecut Beersmiths is extremely carbonated, much more so than your average beer, and pours with a massive head. The head admittedly dissipates quickly, but the carbonation is present ’til you drain the bottle. Consider this for fuel for your next belching contest, It presents more like a stout, or actually, like the chemical reaction that commonly occurs when your pour a can of root beer on top of a scoop of ice cream. More evidence that porters are the unfairly maligned cousins of stouts: Thinking Hard About the Weather Cocoa Porter would make for a fantastic float with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, and probably more toothsome than the same with a stout. This American porter is mid-range ABV and medium-bodied, but with a chocolate flavor that feels so extraordinary, there’s nothing middle-of-the-road about it.