Blacksox Porter
On-tap at Haymarket. Served in a 4oz taster glass. A - A finger-plus of tan foam settles to a thin cap, thicker collar, and sheets of glass-coating lace. Body is black. For a lower ABV porter this is quite good-looking. S - Smells like chocolate and roasted barley. Meh. T - Taste is less good. Chalky and lacking in appropriate sweetness. Very roast and char heavy, with elements of a Dry Irish Stout rather than an American Porter. Some unpleasant bitterness in the finish. M - Thin and grainy body, low carbonation, and somewhat sticky and clingy in the finish. D - Just not a very good beer. I general I find Haymarket dark beers to have too much Chocolate or Black Patent malts to begin with, but this one was particularly unpleasant. Note: I had this again, and a lot of the char had dropped out of the finish. I've bumped up the score ever so slightly.