Chocolate Cherry Ostiarius
Style: Flavoured Porter
ABV: 6.5%
Presentation: 6 packs of 341 ml brown bottles
Brewery: Alley Kat Brewing Co. exclusive for Sherbrooke Liquor
Country: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
KANPAI! w/ Jeff Werstiuk
DI! ECCE HORA! UXOR MEA ME NECABIT! Found on the label of this porter, which translates from Latin as “God, look at the time! My wife will kill me!” Lucky for you guys out there that this beer comes with its own built-in failsafe measure. What’s that, you ask? Well my friend, this happens to be a chocolate cherry Porter, blended and produced so well by the talented folks at the Alley Kat Brewery that this is practically black forest cake in a bottle. The perfect cure for getting anyone out of the hot seat with their significant other. Or if required, to help assist in wooing a potential significant other, this is certainly a mood-enhancing libation that’s well worthy of sharing. For those worthy of sharing with that is…it’s so good you’re going to want to keep it all for yourself otherwise.
For those of you still wondering, “Ostiarius” stand for “Porter” in Latin as well, keeping with the loose theme. First produced exclusively for Sherbrooke Liquor by Alley Kat in 2007, a third batch is in the works now for early 2010. Although there isn’t a significant change in the recipes between batches, or “vintages”, Chocolate Cherry Ostiarius is constantly being fine-tuned from year to year, so if you have the intestinal fortitude and self-control to put a bottle or two away for a few years a lateral tasting can be performed to see how each batch has aged and improved from year to year.
Your favourite mug or pint glass will do the trick to serve this savoury Ostiarius, however if you’re sharing and feeling romantic a pair of red wine glasses will help assist setting the mood. The balanced additions of chocolate and cherry are robust enough that they’ll still be apparent if the bottle is consumed straight out of the fridge and still quite chilled, although be aware that this porter can be consumed even at room temperature without detracting from the experience, so consider yourself informed of your options. As you know by now the warmer a beer like this gets the more intense and open the inherent flavours become to your nose and your tongue.
Once transferred to your chosen drinking vessel you’ll see a dark black opaque beer, yet when held to light it will illuminate a bright reddish cola-like hue. The head will be fairly short, beige in colour, that will settle somewhat quickly. Forget trying to find any distinct aspects of a porter in the aroma, all you’ll get is indulgent rich potent chocolate and cocoa, and the unmistakable smell of cherry extract, although none of it seems artificial in nature. The flavour is a big hit of milky chocolate, with sweet cherry appearing close to the finish. The finish is actually a dry sweet hit of cocoa, which blends with the cherry again on the aftertaste. Yet no fork or spoon are required for this porter, the mouthfeel is only a manageable medium body, and on the lighter end of that to boot. Deceptively quaffable. Like I said before, almost literally black forest cake in a bottle.
In fact forget pairing Chocolate Cherry Ostiarius with anything, serve it as dessert on its own instead. Whether in a mug or wine glass, give it a liberal topping of whipped cream, add powdered chocolate or sprinkles, and for flourish top it with a maraschino cherry, except all bets are off how long it lasts there before it settles to the bottom of the glass. If that sounds like too much effort you can pour it over a scoop or two of ice cream, be it vanilla, chocolate, or some sort of chocolate cherry fudge concoction. Even the strawberry in Neapolitan will accentuate the cherry. Options, options! If you still feel the urge to serve this alongside something, then stick with dessert, it’ll add some healthy companionship to chocolate or berry based sweets, baking and pastries. If someone is insistent on serving this beer with an entree then make it a chocolate fondue!
The next steps in the cooler:
From This Brewery:
Alley Kat Amber
Alley Kat Aprikat
Full Moon Pale Ale
Charlie Flint’s Original Lager
Pumpkin Pi Spiced Ale
Olde Deuteronomy
Also From Sherbrooke:
Sherbrooke Shamrock
Bad Hare Day
Pi Jiu
Aaiieeeeeeeeee Caramba!
Van Helsing’s All Natural Mouthwash
Other Porters:
Rogue Mocha Porter
Mill St. Coffee Porter
Fuller’s London Porter
Samuel Smith’s Old Taddy Porter
For The Adventurous:
Mort Subite Kriek
Trois Pistoles - Unibroue
Brooklyn Monster Ale