Beer – #351 – Kereru – For Great Justice: Wood-Fired Toasted Coconut Porter

Another contender in the long names for beer: Kereru – For Great Justice: Wood-Fired Toasted Coconut Porter.

Brewed by Kereru Brewing Company in the style of a Porter and they are in Upper Hutt, New Zealand

A smooth brown porter with lashings of wood-fired toasted coconut on the nose and in the mouth.

500ml bottle , 1.8 standard drinks, and only 4.5% ABV, and 135 calories a serving.

This seems to have won a silver medal in some competition somewhere.

Also this is a low 22 IBU right down the bottom end of bitter for a Porter style beer.

I’m really dubious of the brewer, based on past experience, but this has had some nice reviews and I’m going to give it a fair crack, it’s not like it was free to me or anything.

Distinctly heavy rich aroma but then.. coconut! it’s like a bounty bar in a beer aroma!

Uncomfortable with that aroma in the glass, it’s like mushrooms, or mushroom compost, or raw liver, for me its very rich in iron. Something sour there too.  This is really unusual, not off-putting, just unusual.

Dark pour as you’d expect and not much by way of a head.

Wow, now then, now then…

Coffee burst, sweetness, nice bitterness, might be too much carbonation, where you get that mouth fizz and not a taste of beer.

That’s a 180 degree change of opinion here that is!

This is a very complicated beer.

Notice how I talk in clipped sentences of 5 words, is that a literary thing?  Should add some Bullet points.

Complicated because it has a myriad of tastes that have no relation to another, and don’t or can’t belong, and yet do. It’s like a Dr.Who episode.

Underlying this is a sourness or sour note, that’s not bad, that’s just a “there is”. There seems to be something like cherry in this, for me, I don’t get so much a chocolate, and the first blush of coffee might have gone south for the winter.

As it warm it gets more things and the coconut begins to impress it’s presence, but I also began to frown when I drank, and that can’t be a good thing.

The pdubyah-o-meter says this rings the bell at 7 on the scale of arbitrary. A complicated beer, with a strange aroma, a flush of coffee and a warm finish of coconut, and al to in the middle that I though was a muddle.

Let’s say that I’d rather have one of these than a ‘domestic’ any day.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? I have not a clue on this question, some bits are great some are average.
2. Would I have another? I don’t think I would but I could.
3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? errr, I don’t think I could font this with any confidence at all. So no.

Listening to James Blunt, and singing away, judge me on this :p MrsPdubyah though it was ok.

PORTER

Black or chocolate malt gives the porter its dark brown color. Porters are well hopped and heavily malted. This is a medium-bodied beer. Porters can be sweet. Hoppiness can range from bitter to mild. Porters are often confused with stouts.