Porters
Welcome to Beer Primer, Decider’s never-ending quest to help readers attain a better understanding of all things boozy. Last week, Decider covered brown ale, and this week, we bring you porter.
One of the big factors in how a beer turns out is how the malt (usually barley) gets treated. Malt that’s oven-roasted for a longer time develops more complex flavors reminiscent of chocolate, coffee, hazelnut, and oak. Darker beers often pick up many of those flavors. A good dark beer should be smooth and well balanced, with flavors that change as the beer warms up. Don’t worry about it losing its chill—it’s actually best enjoyed that way. The same is true of porters.
Named after the ship that mysteriously sank in Lake Superior in 1975, Great Lakes’ Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is a great beer to drink when you don't want to wind up sloppy-drunk at the end of the night. The much-celebrated beer has a dominant coffee flavor, which can make the first sip biting and acidic, but subsequent tastes yield more inviting, almost coffee-like spices. It’s worth suffering through. Unlike some porters, though, the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter doesn't have much cocoa, so don’t think of this as a dessert beer.
Where to find it: The Map Room.
Try it with: If you pick up bottles (The Map Room doesn’t serve food), the Fitzgerald’s complex flavors would play well with a juicy steak.
