Plum porter paired with a plum hat.
Some of our favorite, most inventive, and most flavorful beers that we have ever done have all started with someone reaching out to us and saying “Hey, I have an excess of <something yummy>, do you want it?” Cinnamon sticks used to make Flag Hill spiced rum? You betcha! Summer ripe, bursting-with-flavor peaches? Yes! Grapes from a fallen arbor? Of course! Crisp and tart apples from our backyard tree? Please! Thinking back, I don’t think we have ever said ‘no’ to that question! So when our friend Bruce said, “Hey, our neighbor in Kingston has a ton of plums, do you want some?”, our response, naturally, was “absolutely!”.
Now plums sometimes can be a bit too hard, or a bit too tart, or just not juicy enough. When we picked these plums, they were super ripe and fragrant. They were definitely “take a bite and juice rolls down your arm” kind of juicy. In short, perfect for brewing! We knew we needed to save them for something special, which is why we reserved them for use in the first beer of Unafraid of the Dark V series. We tossed around a few ideas for style of beer to make with the plums, but quickly decided on a big, dark porter fermented with an English Ale yeast so that the end result would be like a fine port wine – fruity, aromatic, a touch tart, and just layered with deep, mature flavors.
Fortunately, for us (and you!) we were able to nail the taste profile we had in mind. In fact, I know I really, really love a beer when Annette gives me a non-carbonated sample of the beer, and I drink it all. Well, for this beer, she filled up an entire growlette of the un-carbonated beer so that we could try it and writeup our tasting notes. We drank it all – and enjoyed it very, very much – even though it was flat! We hope you guys love this one as much as we do!
Here’s what you can expect when you try the (fully carbonated 🙂 ) beer.
– Appearance: Very dark ebony-colored porter with a dark brown head.
– Aroma: Nice fruity nose on this beer – you will get raisin, port wine, slight plum, and a bit of chocolate. It smells a bit sweet, too: brown sugar & molasses.
– Taste & Mouthfeel: This is a full-bodied beer. Take a sip and you get plum, raisin, grape, and prune notes – and then – ‘pow’ – you get a bit of tartness from the plums. Its pretty much like when it is the height of Summer and you bite into a fresh plum and get that tartness from the skin. In addition to the fruit / port flavors, there are also nice chocolate notes to the beer – both the chocolate and fruitiness will lovingly linger on your palate. This beer will benefit if you let it warm up a bit before drinking it, which will enhance the port-like flavors.. although it is super delicious when very cold, too.
– Pairing: This year, we have the benefit of an amazing chef to help us figure out the best pairing for each of these beers. In fact, Friday, January 15th, she plans to have the following special designed to pair with this beer: Crispy Peking-Style Maine-raised duck. Sautéed garlicky greens. Fried rice cakes. Roasted portabella mushrooms. House-made plum sauce. In addition to this, we think this beer would go great with red meat (like a nice tenderloin with a peppery crust), duck, Shitake mushrooms, and, I think it would go great with bittersweet chocolate (but, then again, I would eat bittersweet chocolate with most beers!).
– Stats – ABV is 7% and IBU is 32.
Plum Porter will be available starting today, Wednesday, January 13th 2016.