Post-run, Pre-hurricane beer - Sierra Nevada Porter

So living in South Louisiana, we are more than accustomed to that time honored summer tradition, hurricane tracking, hurricane supply stocking and occasionally hurricane evacuation. For the uninitiated, "hurricane season" lasts from June 1 through the end of November. It usually is most active in the August and September period, however we have seen named storms as late as December in recent years.

I mention this because it seems that the entire area is in complete preoccupation/panic mode on the latest storm, currently called Tropical Storm Isaac. I say currently named, because some time today, it will likely increase to hurricane strength and will be called such. Margaret went out yesterday to get some groceries and was surprised to see how crowded stores and particularly gas stations were. Even in a power outage situation, does a family really need 10 cases of bottled water? I guess if these guys are planning to put on a marathon during the hurricane, then the aid stations will be well stocked.

I don't mean to make light, it looks like this storm will make landfall on the 7th anniversary of the devastating hurricane Katrina that did billions of dollars of damage to the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well as my home town of New Orleans. However, Isaac is not the same storm as Katrina. This one is a lower grade hurricane and the affected areas claim to be well prepared. With all this in mind, I was surprised to see all the PTSD induced panic coming from people in New Orleans and even here in areas further to the west.

Since we are now better supplied and gassed up if the evacuation need arises, I decided to go for a run after work in the 93 degree heat. The run was actually prompted by being too lazy to get up in the morning when it was cooler. I suffered through and for my reward, I had a Sierra Nevada porter.

Appearance: Beer was the color of cola with two fingers of khaki colored head, which had decent but not great retention. Due to the dark color, the carbonation was not noticeable. Again, beer had decent, but not great lacing.

Smell: Immediately got lots of chocolate and malt aromas from this beer. Exactly what I would expect from a good porter.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Like the nose, flavors of chocolate and roasted malt. Also got some caramel and coffee flavors. Initially had some lingering hoppy bitterness on the tongue. This seemed to reduce as the beer warmed up. A creamy mouthfeel that was on the heavy side.

Overall: This beer is a great example of the porter style with great chocolate and coffee flavors. Beer was not too heavy and worked well as a recovery beer, if there is such a thing. I had previously tried the Sierra Nevada stout after a run with similar results. This one is well done. For more information on this beer, please see http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/porter.html

Isaac is about 24 hours away from landfall and appears that it will be to our east. Therefore we are not planning to evacuate. We are now well supplied with water, gas and we are always well supplied on the beer front. I wish everyone a safe next few days here in South Louisiana.

Cheers!