If I Could Turn Back Time

Not to quote Cher or anything but if I could turn back time, I would have hidden a little piece of my bounty a little better. I had brought some 12 oz. beers up to the upstairs fridge on Friday night so I could drink them at my leisure without having to go downstairs. But, one small hitch happened to that plan; we were having people over for my daughters' birthday party on Saturday.

My heart sank when I saw my father in law drinking the Great Divide Saint Bridgets Porter that I was saving. We bought plenty of Boulevard and New Belgium beers for everyone so I didn't give my treasure beers a second thought until I saw him drinking it.

I didn't realize just how grave my error was until I finally cracked open a St Bridgets. Porters are one of my favorite styles of beer and are not brewed by most breweries. I was certainly looking forward to a great style from a great brewery, Great Divide. I was not disappointed.

It poured out coal black with a small light tan head. It looked gorgeous. It had a nice chocolatey coffee nose with a hint of hops thrown in. The taste was of an excellent porter (really no one who makes one makes a bad one in my book) with chocolate, bready and coffee tastes. It had a good amount of carbonation and had a great medium bodied mouthfeel. I can't say anything bad about this beer other than I wish I had more.

On a related note, one of my guests, let's call him Keystone Light, grabbed a Bully Porter and proclaimed to everyone that he hadn't had on of these in a long time. Someone inquired what it was and he said it was a stout. I told him it wasn't a stout, it was a porter and he said that it's about the same thing. I was aghast. It means the beer geek's work is never done and we must explain that a porter gets its color from the black malt used whereas a stout gets its color from roasted malt and barley. Sometimes this beer thing is like explaining NPR to someone who watches 10 hours of Speed channel daily.