The Double Mocha Porter pours with a chocolatey head, deep brown color. It leaves serious lacing on the glass as you drink it.

There is a sweetness in the aroma – to the point that the bitterness in the flavor is quite surprising. There is plenty of chocolate malt, but its not nearly as sweet as that first whiff hits at.

You also won’t be surprised at the 8.2% – the alcohol is high enough that its flavor comes through fairly distinctly in the palate.

Also present is Pacman.

You may have noticed that there is often a distinct flavor that Rouge’s beers have. For years all of their beers have been brewed using exactly one strand of yeast. For its ability to continually devour malt sugars and sometimes create high-ABV beers (and perhaps for its friendly, lovable character), they dubbed it Pacman.

It strikes me as something that could very well be attributed to the water, but since Brian and I once brewed using Pacman and gained the very same character, I’m going to have to go ahead and attribute it to this fine strand of bacteria.

In that familiarity of flavor, this beer is no exception.

This is a really solid beer, worth a few bucks whether you find it in the bottle or on draft at your favorite beer bar.

8/10

What better way to get things rolling again is with a beer from Short’s Brewing. Joe Short is a guy not much older than us who makes incredible beers and seems to love trying new things.

Here we have Short’s Black Cherry Porter. Not sure if I’ve seen this at one of the Michigan Brewer’s Guild Festivals or not, but this is certainly the first time I’ve found it in a bottle.

It pours with a slightly reddish hugh to it, and you see a tint of that red color in the lacing on the glass. Not a lot of head in the pour.

Definitely a chocolate nose here. There is a bit of cherry in the aroma too – like a dark chocolate covered cherry.

It has the nice roasty flavor you expect from a porter to start with, but the cherry provides almost a sourish note up front. It finishes smooth and dark. This is one of those porters where you actually taste the grain of the chocolate malt. Its a nice rich barley flavor.

As you settle into it, the cherry presents itself a bit more, but not in the way you expect. Its not as if there is a sweet cherry flavor, but there is definitely a presence of it. A bit of tartness.

All in all, this is a great porter if you want something a little off the beaten path, but nothing too unfamiliar.

6/10

Like most of their beers, Arcadia made this a pretty traditional English-style ale. For that reason, it shouldn’t be any surprise that it ties with Fuller’s London Porter as my favorite.

It pours with a little brownish head, that leaves a ring around the top of your glass. Its a wonderful dark brown color, and a sweet carmel malt in the nose, paired with a little bit of nuttiness.

There is a nice, roasty flavor to this beer, especially in the aftertaste, which I think is why I like it so much. A bit of dark chocolate – there’s a definite chocolate malt taste to this beer.

I love it – and for anyone looking for a great porter, I recommend this or the Fullers. You can’t really go wrong with either, and as for Michigan Porters, this is a no-brainer.

8/10

I guess in all fairness it wasn’t just the two of us. It was us, 43 Michigan breweries, and nearly 4000 other attendees. Somewhere in there we ran into some old friends, made some new ones, drank no fewer than 24 different varieties of beer, and loved every minute – except for the line for the toilets. That sucked.

I guess its worth mostly talking about the stuff we liked quite a lot, or at least what was very good. There were only a few serious disappointments, and for the sake of everyone involved, I’m going to avoid naming them for now.

(Oh, and that photo right there is Brian and I being sweet, waiting in line for our first beer of the day)

One of the beers we had towards the end of the day was from Short’s Brewing. By the time we got there, they were out of Soft Parade, which I was looking forward to trying again. We got to try their Black Cherry Porter, which I wasn’t impressed with. Maybe I was burnt out on beer by that point, but it didn’t make me want to drink it like I always want to drink, say, Huma-lupa-licious.

Original Gravity Brewing had the one beer that I had all day that was close to being really good, but didn’t quite do it for me. Guys: your Belgian Training Wheels needs some more body. That would have made it a fantastic, classic beer. Certainly drinkable, but not great. Maybe that was the point (as evidenced by the name), to give beginners something that’s highly palatable, while they’re working their way up. Either way, a little more malt and sweetness, and you would have had me.

At Founders we had Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Cerise. Both exactly what I expected, and both fantastic. Kentucky Breakfast will be out in a month or two, and if you like bourbon beers, its a must. The Cerise is replacing the Rubaeus as their Summer/fruit seasonal. Made with Michigan Cherries, it has a great sour cherry character to it, and will be a major part of my beer life when it comes out.

Another highlight was the 4 Elf Winter Warmer from Dark Horse. Dude, it was probably the best spiced winter ale I’ve ever had. I wish it got some distribution (’cause they DO bottle it), ’cause I would love to get my hands on some.

My second favorite brewery of the day was Arcadia. They had their Big Dick’s Old Ale bourbon-barrel aged, which they were calling Pappy’s Big Dick Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Ale. Its a mouthful, either way you look at it. Flavor-wise and name-wise. It was good for what it was, but the real gems at Arcadia’s booth were a bit lighter.

Their Sky-High Rye is amazing. They’re having a hard time keeping up with demand on it, so I haven’t seen a bottle of it yet, but I will be buying when I do. You should too.

They also had a Firkin of Hop Rocket Imperial IPA. Oh man. Three-day dry-hopped Hop Rocket? COUNT ME IN. It was really good. Maybe one of the best beers of the day.

They also had Rick Moranis at their booth.

Taking a break from beer reviews (and a breather before we get to the best brewery of the day), here’s some more of our photos.

Brian and I both love beards and beer – we keep no secret about this. Babe mannequins are also funny, especially when they have beer coming out of their chest. Which is why Rochester Mills gets the Best Booth of the day award from us:

We also managed to find Jeff, Brian’s old co-worker (and occasional B&C contributor). He’s a beer enthusiast, and so are his sister and her boyfriend. They’re awesome. Oh, and his sister special-ordered a case, yes a case, of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout. Seriously. Just emphasizing how awesome they are.

Okay, now its time! Best brewery of the day! Who is it? Who is it?!

.

..

…

….

…..

……

…….

KUHNHENN BREWING COMPANY!

From their Bourbon Barrel Barleywine (very good!), to their Raspberry Isbock (great!), to their Tenacious Cassis Fruit Infused Old Ale (a currant Old Ale? Awesome!), it was all great.

Brian and I had to agree that the best beer of the day was without a doubt their American Extreme IPA. In a Firkin! Exclamation marks!

Seriously, this beer is amazing, and has without a doubt one of, if not THE best balance of malt and loads of hops I’ve had in a long time. Bittering, flavor and aromatic hops all coming together… oh man. I want to drink this all the time.

This lady poured it for me. Twice!

This is Brian’s “holy cow beer is sweeet” face.

This is Brian and I drinking our last beer of the day. We were way happier than we look in it. I promise.

Thanks to my manager at work for the tickets, thanks to our friends who shared beer with us, and most of all, thanks to all the brewers making not only the best beer in Michigan, but some of the best beer in the world.

Ian!

So Brian pulled this one out of the fridge.

Not a lot of head from the get-go, and the smell is hoppier than I expected. It also kind of tastes like a stout – which is what I always thought when anyone brought up an imperial porter: doesn’t that kind of take it into stout territory?

Brain had this to say:

“Yo, it smells slightly chocolaty, and somewhat malty and bittery. It tastes like a porter on steroids. Its too thin to be a stout, but too thick and too hoppy to be a real porter. For your money, its the best buy I know of in the porter category. I don’t find most porters to be that interesting, aside from the Arcadia Shipwreck Imperial. I mean, porters aren’t interesting to me. This is a good, solid porter, that reminds me a good, solid stout.”

7/10 – this is an absolute must-try.