Dark beer should be served at cellar temperature (12-14 degrees), but most places these days simply don't have the space to cater for lovers of cold and "warm" beer, so more often than not it sits in the fridge with the rest of the other beers. Just let it sit for 5 minutes to let it get up to room temperature - or simply tell the barstaff to take it out of the fridge while you get on with drinking another beer. It really does make a huge difference. The aromas become multi dimensional, the flavour profile develops many layers, and the finished product is much improved. In my beer tasting that I do at Kook (http://www.kook.fi/) , we taste two types of dark beer. One is served on ice, the other isn't. It's amazing how different the two beers taste. The clever part is, that they are both the same beer. Many don't believe it.
We've got a dark beer award winner at Drink. Huvila X-Porter won gold medals at the Helsinki beer festival and San Diego beer festival (this is why it's called "X Porter - it's exported to the states also) in 2010 and won best overall dark beer in Finland at this years Finnish beer festival.
Huvila X-Porter (http://www.ratebeer.com/ rating 94) is in a 500ml bottle and comes in at 7%. It's made by the Malmgard brewery which is located about an hours drive from Helsinki. It's available in both Drink Bar and Shop, aswell as Kodu, Porgu, Stockmann and Kaubamaja.
It's a traditional style Baltic porter - pretty high abv, lots of dark roasted malt giving an almost black colour with a tan head, and coffee/burnt aroma.
It pours Cola black, with quite a high amount of carbonisation. This gives the finished glass that classic porter look - rich dark topped with a creamy off white head. The aromas given off are the usual coffee, burnt toast, roasted malt notes, but there is also some toffee and licorice (it's Finnish afterall!) and a hint of nuts.
The taste is similar to the aromas - pleasingly there isn't so much sweetness, and the palate is dominated by dark caramel sugars, roasted coffee malts and a dry bitterness in the finish. It comes in at 50 IBUs. Mouthfeel as you can see by the picture is excellent - the creamy head lasts down the glass.
All in all a worthy winner of it's awards.
We don't sell Guinness in our bar - simply because we sell beer like this. If a customer comes in and asks for Guinness, then the girls won't say "ei ole" as many other barstaff in different locations in Estonia are programmed to do, they'll inform the customer that we have other dark beers and porters available. It's always pleasing to see a seasoned Guinness drinker try a real version of "their beer". The look on their face is as if they have just seen the light.
Or should that be the dark?
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