These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Coffee and beer.

Much of my life is based around coffee and beer.

How do I get the water my body needs? Well, it appears that coffee needs water in order to be brewed. And as an avid brewer, I can tell you for certain that beer indeed requires water.

Coffee and beer.

So imagine my delight, when Mrs. Smitty and I traveled to Tornonto recently, when I stumbled acorss a brewpub that combined the two.

Today I give to you: Mill Street Brewery Coffee Porter.

This beer is everything I like in a beer...and includes coffee.

The beer poured into the pint glass a deep black with russet-brown highlights when held to light. It yielded a latte-like head with incredible retention. This is a quality brew.

Fresh-ground coffee dominates the nose on this beer, followed by a malty sweetness and some dark roasted grains. Yup...coffee and beer. My two favorite things.

The taste, again, is absolutely everything I like in a beer. Big huge coffee right up front, like a nice dark roast. I get chocolate, toasted malt and in the background a malty sweetness and a hint of dark fruit that belies an ale.

Like a good porter, I also got a great oily slickness on the tongue ad the flavors really blended well and coated my whole mouth. The beer felt more full-bodied than it really is because of how the flavors blend and the coffee and malt shine through in this beer.

All in all, I have really used much less hyperbole than I do with many of my reviews. I am just so vastly impressed with this effort from the Mill St. Brew Pub in Toronto that understatement I think serves this beer better. Make the 4-hour trip to Toronto. Buy this beer. It is everything I like in a beer and is something I want to try to emulate in my own homebrew.