Well I will say that the garnet colored pour is certainly in line with the name of the beer, so there’s that!

This is a thinnish beer, so if you are looking for a rich, robust porte this isn’t really it, but perhaps paradoxically it is quite flavorful. A hefty malt backbone sits behind a mildly spicy, prickly hoppy layer across the palate.

This feels relatively un-porter like to me (at least in terms of modern versions), There’s a sort of minerality about the beer that I really like (water is such an important part of English beers in general), and it brings a typically English element to the beer. I get the feel of a lightly treacly Bitter or ESB, rather than a typical porter.

A touch of sweet caramel, some toffee, again much more ESB-like than porter like for me.

In the end I like this, but I don’t care for it much as a porter. Think more like a dryish ESB (if that isn’t too much of an oxymoron) and you’ll be happier than if you’re seeking a porter of any type.

This beer is a bit of an enigma to me. I usually don’t care for things labeled as one thing but that I perceive as something other than that claim, but in the end Trooper Red ‘N’ Black wins me over.