• Cory Pelc
• On September 20, 2013
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Evil Twin Brewing – Lil’ B Imperial Porter
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 35
SRM: 20

Colorado has always been a place of privilege when it comes to accessing the finer selections of craft beer. With the staples being rooted in our scene now for 30 years and handfuls of breweries opening up each month, we are really epitomizing the moniker of the Napa Valley of Beer with our distribution side of things opening up as well. In the last few months, we have been blessed with Clown Shoes Beer and Epic Brewing hitting our shelves. Now, within the last few weeks, we have had an influx of infinite awesomeness with Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, Alesmith, Stillwater Artisanal and Evil Twin Brewing. I will be sipping many of these new brews on the back porch soon enough but for now I will talk candidly about an old friend, Evil Twin’s Lil’ B Imperial Porter.

I first ventured into my foray with Evil Twin when I picked up a bomber of Evil Twin’s Lil’ B Imperial Porter when I was in New Orleans last year on a business trip.  What I did not know when I picked up those 22 ounces of goodness in Stein’s Market & Deli so many months ago was that I was starting a new love  affair. My wife, beguiled by my affinity for the dark and roasty brews, had mentioned that my NOLA haul of beer was ridiculous. I am not sure if she meant the number of beers that I commandeered into a checked bag, or if she was talking about the number of dark, cellar dwellers I brought home compared to the lighter of shade of which she would have enjoyed much more. Either way, I did not know how much I would come to love this brew. And now, in Colorado, I can go to the local bottle shoppe and snag a four pack for the same price I paid for that bomber in NOLA. Heck to the yes. Why do I love this brew so much? Sure, it’s dark and roasty . . . That alone could be my complete answer. I must digress, it is so much more.

This brew pours a deep black body. This is an abyss of sorts, with a fine khaki head.  You get a wisp of thick syrupy legs tracing the inside of the tulip.  The foam fades quickly leaving no lace on the glass. The thickness of this barley pop is present with a swirl of the glass as the legs retract back up on the sides, clinging for dear life. The first whiff of the aroma is boozy dark chocolate. You can smell the sweetness playing off roasted malts. Big toasty notes come off, not unlike caramel and molasses. Vanilla and dark fruit finish off the aroma leaving a darker, roasted and sweeter smelling brew than most of this style that coalesces into a sweet roasted cocoa aroma overall. On the tongue, rich chocolate with caramel malt take stage. Boozy. Mad boozy. A moderately strong and somewhat sweeter chocolate is present upfront on the second taste. Caramel fades in the mid-palette leading the chocolate to more of a dry cocoa flavor. A big dose of coffee emanates from the third taste as this brew really gets into its groove. An almost oaky booziness comes at the end and a warming sensation moves from the throat to the stomach. I want to see how this matches up to an earthy, spicy cigar! In the mouthfeel, this ale falls on the lighter side of a full bodied brew. The body of the beer is on the thicker and more viscous side with only a small amount of carbonation. This yields fantastic roasted, coffee, cocoa and boozy flavors of the brew to shine more in the mouthfeel. The lack of carbonation allows for bright flourishes of the aforementioned flavors without being too big or boisterous. This is a great slow sipper.

The Lil B Imperial Porter has a sweeter roasted aroma with chocolate meeting up with coffee in the taste, with a full mouthfeel that dries out rather nicely creating a pleasantly roasted flavor to linger on the fore palette. Pair this beer at your next PorchDrinking occasion with grilled steak, barbeque spare ribs, or portabellas, hard cheeses, and desserts that are vanilla, chocolate and coffee based.