\nBrewer:<\/strong> Port City Brewing<\/a>
\nLocation:<\/strong> Alexandria, Virginia
\nType:<\/strong> American Porter
\nABV:<\/strong> 7.5%<\/p>\n

Let’s hear it for the home team! <\/p>\n

I decided to kick off Darktober with a local theme (I’m very lucky to live in the epicenter of some amazing craft beer action), and by giving the first spot to a brew that has been the stand-out new discovery for me this past year. <\/p>\n

Port City Brewing Company is relatively young, having only started distributing its beers in 2011. I discovered a couple of their offerings in a cooler at a little sandwich shop in Old Town Alexandria, mere miles from where their brewery is located. The owner seemed very enthusiastic when she saw that I’d selected a bottle of Port City Porter to go with my roast beef sandwich and exclaimed that it was the best porter she’d ever had.<\/p>\n

Based on the relative youth of the brewery, I took this as her simply being a good salesperson. I’m happy to admit that I was mostly wrong in this assumption. <\/p>\n

While not “the best” I’ve ever had, this is a surprisingly delicious, robust porter. It pours a beautiful dark espresso color with a soft tawny head. The flavors are decisive yet smooth: nutty, roasty, chocolatey, all married together with notes of earthiness and something slightly astringent on the switchbacks. It coats your mouth well but never becomes cloying, and maintains the delightful effervescence that I love about a porter. To me, it’s the effervescence that keeps porters from turning into a heavy, heady “meal” of a beer like stouts can often become. Also, at 7.5-percent ABV, you’re left with a pleasantly buzzy warmth flowing through your veins at the end of this pint. <\/p>\n

I’ve yet to experience this porter on tap, but I can only imagine it’s even more wonderful than it is in bottle form. This is definitely a solid, reliable “go-to” beer that’s always nice to have on hand, whether it’s accompanying a tasty roast beef on French bread or you’re craving some liquid relaxation to accompany movie night on the couch. <\/p>\n

Because Port City Brewing is still relatively young and relatively small, their distribution range is limited. According to their Web site, you can only find their beers in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., and North Carolina, although I have heard some people mention that they’ve seen it appearing in stores in Philadelphia. I wish them continued success, because if the rest of their beers are as amazing as their porter, they are producing some spectacular brews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brewer: Port City Brewing Location: Alexandria, Virginia Type: American Porter ABV: 7.5% Let’s hear it for the home team! I decided to kick off Darktober with a local theme (I’m very lucky to live in the epicenter of some amazing craft beer action), and by giving the first spot to a brew that has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[520],"tags":[522,229,523,524],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}