Brewery: Deschutes Brewery

Name: Black Butte Porter

Style: American Porter

Origin: Oregon

Bottle: 12 fl. oz.

ABV: 5.2%

Appearance: deep, dark, chocolate brown

Pours: Pretty simply, the carbonation barely ripples the top.

Smell: a sometimes oddly intriguing and sometimes oddly weird concoction of spearmint leaf, plums, figs, and, yes, bubblegum.

Taste: There’s a dry, charcoal and umami taste, beyond that maybe it’s me, maybe it’s this brew but nothing else wants to come out and introduce itself.
If you ever again get to go camping with some friends and want some suds to enjoy around a campfire for some great conversation and laughs while some 70s rock plays on a portable stereo? Bring along a six pack or two of this stuff.

Mouthfeel: Slightly tackier than water with currently some slight foaming up from the bubbles. Otherwise not really all that much on the mouthfeel front.

Rating: 6.75 How a beer can be simultaneously inanely bland and weirdly incongruous is something I’m afraid I won’t figure out before this bottle ends. I might in another bottle or two, but this beer needs the distraction of friends to really be enjoyed. It’s not really complex or fascinating enough on its own to enjoy on a relaxing weekend at home, but marginally commendable as something to bring to a small get together where whats brought isn’t as important as who you’re with.
It’s a good beer, if you’re in a time and place where you are being distracted by others.

....yes, I realize I just repeated myself thrice.