Leatherwood Porter
Poured dark mahogany with an average head with good retention. Leatherwood is a really complex flavoursome honey, and the dominant smell and taste of it is pleasant at first. However, like others have found, both smell and taste were completely dominated by the honey, and I could find little other interest in the beer. There seemed to be little attempt to marry the flavours, instead ending up a honey flavoured dark coloured drink. I struggled to finish it, and think I would have preferred just having the honey on its own, maybe with a toasted crumpet... I've yet to try the James Boag's version, but I'm generally not convinced about the whole concept of honey porter rather than using other beer styles. Even if it could be done more successfully, are the strong roasted malt flavours of porter the best complement to the flavours of honey?