Alaskan Smoked Porter (2008)

This is one of the most decorated beers at the Great American Beer Festival? I just don't get it.

Admittedly, smoked beers, or rauchbiers, are not my favorite type. But this is a smoked porter, and porters are one of my favorite types. Plus, this was highly rated and widely discussed, since it's kind of the grand daddy of rauchbiers in the US.

This one pours and opaque black, with no real highlights and a moderate tan head that is never really big, and thins quickly. That's expected for a porter, though.

Moderate smoke smell. Not alder, to me, as advertised, but more like the average campfire. Not overpowering, like many smoked beers are, but maybe that's because the porter keeps it subdued. Slight roasted grain smell, balanced with the smoke, but no bitterness or other hops that I can tell.

The taste is a bit disappointing. It's not overpowering, but the smoke tastes different than it smells. Mild bitterness with no substantive hops profile. It smelled like a straight-up camp fire, but tastes like there's more in the fire. Not trash or plastic, really, but random stuff. Fabrics. Different wood. The best analogy I can come up with is that it's like adjunct grains in a beer's malt profile. It just tastes off. Not like straight alder wood to me, more like alder wood with preservatives in it or something. Just medicinal, off. Plus, there's none of the usual porter vinous feel or taste. This one is dry, and feels more like a stout than a porter. Or a starkbier, lighter than a stout.

I gotta tell you, I won't be looking for this one ever again, except to avoid it.