I have an affinity for potatoes.
There’s a notorious running joke in certain circles regarding my feelings for potatoes, which I’m not sure if I’ll get into. Actually, fuck it. Let’s get into it.
Somewhere around 2007, I believe that I made some comments to the effect of potatoes being a meal in and of themselves. A friend and I were talking about wanting a snack and she offered to make some potato wedges, to which I said “Well, like, I don’t want a meal.” This statement was apparently hilarious and has come back to haunt me on numerous occasions when visiting with old friends.
Thing is, I really love potatoes and I think that my satisfaction upon eating mashed potatoes and only mashed potatoes for dinner back in those days was entirely genuine. Should I therefore be made the subject of fun?
Yes, absolutely.
So a few days ago, I was at the LCBO buying beer and I saw Black Creek Brewery‘s Irish Potato Stout. Someone had finally thought to marry potatoes to the other thing that I used to consume and call dinner when I was 25 – a beer! I had to try it, because I am dumb.
When I popped it open, I was mildly disappointed to take a swig and realize that it was a fairly standard – if fairly tasty – porter.
The Bottle: The beer comes in a healthy 500ml bottle that you’re probably supposed to use to pour the beer into a glass, but that I drank right out of because I’m a dirtbag. The label reminded me that I was possibly drinking a beer lovingly hand-crafted by a bunch of old time-y cosplayers, which made me feel good because it’s a very kind and charitable thing to do to give a cosplayer a job.
The Colour: Like most (or all) porters, the beer is essentially black. I had been hoping for swirls of white as if chunks of potato were floating around in it, but no dice.
The Flavour: I’m really not sure of what I was hoping for. Was I hoping for a potato-flavoured beverage? Let’s admit to ourselves that it sounds like a horrible idea. Still, though, not a hint of potato. It has the roasted, slightly sweet flavour that you would expect from a porter – although not as sweet as a “chocolate” porter, and perhaps not so roasted as a “coffee” porter. All in all, it’s a fairly easy drinking beer. Rich flavour without tasting thick.
The Verdict: This beer is fine, but I’m not super into porters and it wasn’t the wild alcoholic tuber adventure that I had been promised (by my imagination). I’ll probably not buy it again, but if porters are your thing I would recommend giving this a shot.
End notes –
Last night at band practice, I also drank one of these:
Perhaps it was the oversized 600ml-plus brain-cell decimating bottle, but this beer was particularly forgettable.
Just thought that you’d like to know.
The Fraudsters' Almanac 