American Porter
American Porter is a style name that reflects American craft brewery interpretations and adaptations of English Porters. Anchor Brewing and Sierra Nevada Brewing in California—two of the original U.S. craft breweries—each brewed their own groundbreaking Porter, which helped introduce the style to the contemporary American palate. Many domestic craft brewers have since followed with myriad delicious examples of Robust and Brown Porter-style brews, while others have taken new approaches, including the use of smoked malts and brewing Porters of “imperial” strength.Smoke Porter is an American Porter sub-style that integrates smoked malt aroma, flavor and character to complement the roasty, chocolaty and caramel Porter character. Hop bitterness and aroma and flavor vary across examples according to the brewer’s intent. American Imperial Porter is emerging as a stand-alone beer style that is inspired by the strength of the Baltic Porter, yet can deliver more roast character and amped up hop aroma, flavor and/or bitterness, with ABV reaching 10 percent or more.
Other American Porter examples may incorporate the addition of coffee, vanilla, chocolate or similarly complementary ingredient(s), while still other special versions are aged in used casks, such as bourbon barrels (a throwback to wooden vat aging of English breweries) from which the beer takes on bourbon aroma and flavor character for additional complexity.
| Characteristic | Details |
|---|---|
| Taste/Smell | Malty, Complex, Roasty, Chocolaty, Medium-bodied |
| Alcohol-by-Volume (ABV) Range | 4.5 - 10+% |
| Bitterness (IBU) | 20-50 |
| Popular Examples | Anchor Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter, Smuttynose Robust Porter, Rogue Mocha Porter, Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Knee Deep Tanilla Porter, Flying Dog Road Dog Porter, Scuttlebutt Porter, Stone Smoked Porter, Alaskan Smoked Porter, Kona Pipeline Porter, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, Avery New World Porter, Thomas Hooker Imperial Porter |
| Serving Temperature | Cool, 46-54° to Cellar, 55-57° |
| Glassware | Pint or nonic, beer mug |
| Cheese Pairing Ideas | Asiago, Brie, Colby, Gloucester. Emmental, Gouda (aged), Gruyère with milder American Porters |
| Food Pairing Ideas | Roasted, smoked and barbecued foods, including beef, poultry, seafood, sausage, chili and hearty stews. Try with cheesecake for dessert |
