Name: Kafe Porter
Brewer: The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Co. (Philippines)
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (Base Style: Baltic Porter)
ABV: 8%
Review Year: 2020
The latest collaboration beer by Tony Sindayen of The Marc’s & Tony Brewing Co. is Kafe Porter, a Baltic Porter concocted with cold brew coffee concentrate by Cycle Philippines that features Arabica beans from Mt. Apo in the southern region of the Philippines.
STYLE GUIDELINES
This beer is being evaluated as a Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (30A) with the Baltic Porter (9C) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.
TASTING NOTES
Kafe Porter is a murky amber brown beer that appears black under less light. A mocha-colored head is also noted. The coffee addition makes its presence felt on the nose through an earthy, spice-like character with light roasty and dark chocolate accents.
The palate suggests a beer that is medium-full in body with a medium-high carbonation level. Pronounced earthy, spice-like, and tart coffee flavors meld with well-balanced dark chocolate, dark fruit, and roasty-malty flavors. Bitterness is assertive and takes a dark roasty form. Low to no sweetness, while the noted tartness comes as grape- and wine-like. The mentioned bitterness lingers and as the beer leaves the palate slightly sticky and dry.
THE VERDICT
It is what it is– a Baltic Porter brewed with cold-brewed coffee made with Mt. Apo beans. The coffee-induced characteristics are quite pronounced, while that familiar Philippine coffee “terroir” is well-represented. The coffee addition also complements broadly the attributes of a classic Baltic Porter, particularly the dark fruit esters and roasty malt character. Kafe Porter gets more intense as it warms up. If you love coffee and dark beer, then this is for you.
Let us see how this beer would develop a few months down the road.
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