Listen to your customers. It’s a piece of advice almost as old as Adam Smith.
Believe It or not, the humdrum adage was the inspiration for Lakeporter, the appealing new dark beer at O’Meara Bros. Brewing Company.
“We try to do as many styles as we can,” said brewer Tim O’Meara. “A lot of our brown ale fans said you should do a porter.”
The style predates even the more popular stout, historically. Yet it’s the first porter O’Meara prepared at the brew pub. And it emulates the classic porter profile.
On the nose, nutty caramel and toasted bread swirl together into an enticing toffee aroma. Hints of bitterness follow, contending with dark roasted coffee and a crème brulee veneer, like sugar in the raw.
Of course, the test of beer is on the palate. Dark, bittersweet chocolate and caramelized malt flavors ooze forward, rich and dense despite the porter’s lighter body. As these heartier notes ease off, a welcoming memory emerges, something akin to a bakery on a Sunday morning, with sweet breads and toasted nuts.
From this, another morning note strides forward – a dark roasted, nicely bitter coffee. It leads to the finish, framed on the edges by another familiar note, akin to a traditional cola made before the corn syrup era.
“Porter is like coffee with cream and sugar,” O’Meara observed. “It’s a more complex stout.”
O’Meara relied on imported malts – roasted barley, chocolate – from England to form the base of the Lakeporter. The mix also included traditional biscuit malts, lending the calming, nutty character.
“It’s probably the one I drink the most of on my time off,” he admitted.
The Lakeporter is on tap now. In the very near future O’Meara expects to add a second porter. This time around, however, he is breaking sharply from tradition.
It will be a peppermint version. And, you know, sometimes the customer just has to trust the brewmaster.
