Post by Joseph Schumacher
Hello Blog readers! Today we aim our spotlight at Deschutes Brewery’s Black Butte Porter, known as “the beer that started it all”.
So where did it all start? Deschutes Brewery has lived by the words “do your best and next time do it better” since they opened in 1988. Gary Fish established the Deschutes Brewery & Public House as small brew pub in downtown Bend, Oregon and named it after the Deschutes River.
Due to extremely high demand the brewery expanded to a 16,000-square-foot production brewery in 1993. In 2008 the brewery opened a second pub, this time in Portland. Deschutes now has a brewing facility with two brew houses and distributes its beer in twenty-eight states.
Deschutes Brewery donates $1 per barrel sold to local and national charities and participating fundraisers through its cross-departmental community involvement committee. The brewery won the 2015 Oregon Sustainability Awards and their Portland Pub received an honorable Gold Certification through the City of Portland Sustainability at Work program.
One last Interesting fact about Deschutes Brewing: they use an in-house, proprietary yeast strain (read our “High ABV Brews” article for more information about Ninja Yeast!).
So now, the beer. What is Black Butte Porter, what’s in it, and what does it taste like?
To start, this Porter has 5.2% ABV and 30 IBUs. Pale, carapils, chocolate, crystal, and wheat malts are all used in its brewing. Cascade, bravo, and tettnang hops are used to balance the malts and add flavor complexity.
The nose shows notes of caramel and bready malts with some subtle fruity aromatics. The palate is very light bodied and highly carbonated with a perfectly airy mouthfeel. A rich mix of dark chocolate and roast malt also displays hints of toasted grain. The added aspect of hop bitterness counterbalances the sweetness very well. Overall this is clean, dry, and crisp at the finish with a slight chocolate aftertaste.
This beer is full of flavor and yet easy to drink. Its balanced elements of chocolate, roast grain, and bitterness make it a perfect match with the sweet and salty Sun signature pizza from The Pizza Press! Come by any of our locations this month and taste this beer for yourself- you won’t be disappointed. Thanks for reading!
