As a tribute to the official end of summer (or perhaps a final nail in the coffin, for those of us in Canterbury), I’ll turn to a more fireside coded drop, crafted by Matakana’s Sawmill brewery.
In terms of its principle construction, this is a fairly simply patterned porter with no flavourings or adjuncts in play. The big deal here is the barrel, which well and truly makes itself known. Toasted coconut and russian fudge top up the already rich malt aroma, with the roasted grains the overall impression is of some kind of Irish moccachino. On the palate some charred oak, brett, and a bit of barrel funk give a crucially drying lift to the decadently rich and chewy malt backbone.
A long and distinctly warming finish is finally capped off with a (for the abv) remarkably mild bitterness. About as close as you can get to a desert porter without technically being a desert porter.