Arcadia Ales Shipwreck Porter

If you are a craft beer enthusiast like I am, you have no doubt noticed a rise in the number of barrel aged brews available on the market today. If you also happen to appreciate a fine whiskey….well that’s another blog post for another day.

This week, I decided to explore what wood could do for our series selection, Porter. So from Arcadia Ales of Battle Creek, Michigan, a microbrewery specializing in British style ales since 1996, we get Barrel Aged Shipwreck Porter. Now normally at this point I would tell you what they want you to know about this brew. However, there is not a lot of information available on their website. I know that it is 12% ABV and 50 IBU’s and $5.89 for a 12 oz. bottle (check local listings).

Now I know that of all that vital information, the price sticks out the most. But at 12% ABV, this is not intended to be a “drinking” beer, but more of a “sippin’” beer. So don’t multiply that by 6 and think you’ve blown your drinking money for the whole weekend. One was plenty for me and I am a professional, well almost.

Once I broke through the wax dipped cap and poured this beer into the glass, I noticed, as I have with other barrel aged beers of this strength, that there was very little head that formed. It is a thick, black ale which allows little light to come through. That’s how it looks, but what about the taste??

At 50 IBU’s you may expect a strong hop bite at the beginning. But keep in mind that’s a measure of hop content more than hop taste. 50 may be the middle, but it is way over balanced by the amount of malt in the brew so don’t worry if you are hop shy. Like other beers from this series, Shipwreck Porter is very malty with a hint of the alcohol but not to the point of flavor loss. If you use lacing as a measure of beer quality, you will go low on this one, but that really doesn’t factor into the flavor at all.

So if you aren’t scared to try an extreme beer, both in alcohol strength and flavor, don’t hesitate to give this brew a whirl.

The official Everything Brewed Rating on this brew was hard to establish. I miss many classic Porter notes on this because of the intensity of the flavor. But it is a fantastic brew over all because of the intensity of the flavor. All things considered, I give this a 3 out of 5 pints.

Thanks for checking out this week’s Brew Review. Thoughts, comments, and questions are, of course, welcome. And remember to enjoy your beer, but responsibly please. Also, don’t forget to check out www.arcadiaales.com for more information on this and other brews by – you guessed it – Arcadia Ales.

PS Check out the Mats Around the World section and help make it interesting.

Cheers,
Jason

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