Kev's Beer of the Week Smoked Porter w/ Chipotle Peppers

Kev's Beer of the Week ending 7/13/12

 

Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers

Kev Rating: B
Style: American Porter
ABV: 5.90%
IBUs: 53

Availability: Limited
Had: Most recently purchased at Gordon's in Watertown
Region: Escondido, CA

The Stone Smoked Porter has always been a delicious offering from Stone - good in the bottle, great on tap!  It's a nice bridge between a Porter with smokey notes and a German style Rauchbier.  If you have been on the fence about trying something with "smoked" in the name, don't be, it's worth it.  

That brings us to the two variations Stone recently released in the bottle - Smoked Porter with Chipotle and Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean.  Because I'm a week behind in my Beer's of the Week I'm doing a rapid fire - Chipotle for 7/13 week and Vanilla for 7/20 week.

First off is the Smoked Porter made with Chipotle Peppers.  Now, most of you that know me know I will eat anything...except for spicy food.  I've had a few pepper beers before and some have been way too spicy for me (looking at you Throwback Brewery) and some have been great (Left Hand).  However, the Chipotle is there yet not the highlight of the show.  The always tasty Smoked Porter is still the main attraction but is balanced nicely with a bit of heat on the back wave of the sip.  You can still taste the chocolate and coffee notes from the Smoked Porter and as it warms get a bit more of the heat from the Chipotle peppers - really nice variation on the original. 

For those of you out there that want big bad pepper notes (looking at you JP & Nick), this one may disappoint, but for the rest of you that just want a hint of the Chipotle, this one hits the mark!