Redemption Fellowship Porter

Brewery: Redemption

Type: Porter (cask)

Alcohol: 5.1%

Country: England

Porter on cask, now there is something that is meant to be on cask. As much as I take the piss out of light ales on cask, I won't hear a damn word against having a dark beer off the engine. Thankfully I found a dark beer on cask at the Euston tap London. With the bar packed out the door and the barman pouring two at a time I was just able to catch his attention long enough to speak two words, "dark" and "cask". What I ended up with was a half pint of redemption fellowship porter.

It's dark, but not the kind of dark you get when people mistake porter for stout. This has a good ruby tinge to the beer when held to the light. Too dark to be brown and too light to be stout, guess that's a proper porter then. It's got a good cask head to it, meaning nothing at all. Smells like an old cup of coffee or a flat porter, depending on your experience you'll know what I mean. The taste is smooth as all hell. Casked to the T, it has almost no carbonation which really smooths out that dark malt. Speaking of, this beer is all dark malt. Smooth dry dark malt provides a reassuring bitterness but without getting carried away. Has a bit of a metallic twinge that is a little more pronounced due to the lack of carbonation and body that usually serve to hide those types of flavors. It finishes though on a nice bitter espresso and dark malt note that ends velvety smooth. Tough rating this beer because if it were to be on keg it would probably be pretty boring and plain. Just another standard porter. However on cask it gets a little more interesting, massively smooth and insanely drinkable. We'll go with seven caps for a good glass of beer that I would have again, but probably only if it were on cask.