Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper

Brewed By: Port Brewing/Pizza Port/Lost Abbey in San Marcos, California  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Evolution Wine & Spirits in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Russian Imperial Stout, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Nothing compliments a cold evening and some football like a Russian Imperial Stout. Thankfully, Port Brewing has a seasonal Impy to scratch that itch.

Port Brewing are the other half of Lost Abbey. Port Brewing began inside Pizza Port back in 1992, when brother and sister Vince and Gina Marsaglia opened up a seven barrel brewery. Pizza Port became known for their beer, and two more Pizza Port locations opened up in Carlsbad and San Clemente. In 2006, Vince and Gina (along with Tomme Arthur and Jim Comstock) founded the Port Brewing Company in Stone Brewing's old facility in San Marcos. Port Brewing opened on May 5th, 2006, and Tomme went on to produce beers for the Lost Abbey. Since then, the Port Brewing Company has won a number of awards, and has been celebrated for being one of the top breweries in the United States. For more info, check out Port Brewing's website here. 

Tonight's beer is a big, bad, seasonal Imperial Stout. This beer is brewed once a year, and has been brewed since 1997, when it was originally brewed at Pizza Port in Solana Beach. This beer is brewed with a grocery list of malts and hops, including Two Row, Wheat, Domestic and English Crystal, Roasted, Black and Chocolate Malts; and Phoenix, Challenger and East Kent Goldings hops. This is a huge beer at 10.0% ABV, and is available in early winter. Let's glass this up, and see how it stacks up.

Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper

The beer pours a dark, inky, pitch black color, with 4 fingers of thick brown-colored head. The head is coffee brown, and thick, and leaving nice lacing on the glass. You can see carbonation on the sides of this glass, but when held to bright light, this is still an inky-black beer.

The aroma on this beer is big roast, huge chocolate, some wood, a hint of smoke/meat, velvety smooth wood/roast, a hint of burnt sugars, and maybe a touch of coffee. There's a touch of floral hops on the nose as well. Pretty typical, bold, Imperial Stout aromas.

The taste is big, bold, dense, slightly oily, and quite nice. I'm getting a lot of roast, coffee, chocolate, wood, campfire, more roast, some molasses/burnt sugar, and nice floral hops providing support. There's a boozy complexity to this, with hints of alcohol, raisins, and elusive dark fruits.

This is boozy at 10%, but the booze is balanced nicely by roast, sweetness, and some hop bitterness. This is full-bodied in terms of mouthfeel, slightly chewy, and drags a bit with some thickness about it. The carbonation is lighter and thin, which I sort of prefer for this style. Palate depth is okay for the style, but complexity is high. Up front is chocolate, sweet sugars, malt, and then a flash of hops; this rolls into roast, bitter chocolate, bitterness; the back end is roast, wood, campfire, burnt sugar; elusive dark fruits and booze run throughout. Stickiness builds on your lips, and the duration on your palate is okay.

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Decent Above-Average on this beer. This is really nice, and the second half of this bottle is going to pair wonderfully with the Giants vs. Packers game, and some pizza. Food pairings are your typical Imperial Stout pairings: pizza, steak with mushrooms, a burger with mushrooms, chocolate cake, a cigar, etc. What elevates this beer into something Above-Average is the balance of roast and sweetness, nice boozy complexity, and big chocolate and roast notes. This is a great beer (especially for what I paid, which was like 7 or 8 bucks), and definitely something that will warm you up on a cold winter night. I would recommend this.

Random Thought: Even though this is a winter seasonal, I don't think this is really a "Christmas beer." It's a damn good RIS, but yeah. I mentioned some food pairings....I bet this would be lovely if you dropped a scoop of mint ice cream into it. Imperial Stout + Mint Ice Cream = mmmmm?