Pressure Drop Porter

Among the many things I miss from pre-pandemic life are the spontaneous conversations with other enthusiastic enthusiasts who enthusiastically share my enthusiasm for beer. Visit any brewery tap, craft bottle shop or modern gastropub and if you loitered around long enough you'd usually end up in a chat with someone. The bartender, the server, the cashier and even the random customer at the bar - all ideal candidates for discussing that latest release from Verdant or figuring out which beer festival was worth your money.

It's been a while since I've been anywhere near that sort of action, so imagine my glee when I pop into the local bottle shop to find the owner and employee splitting hairs over which modern London brewery does the best old-school London Porter. I no longer have the social skills to work my way into a conversation, so I opted for some light eavesdropping while I picked out a few cans.

The favourite seemed to be Anspach & Hobday's The Porter, which always seems to come up when Porters are discussed, but never seems to be in stock when I want to buy it (I had the same experience at the Anspach and Hobday arch a few years back - everyone was raving about The Porter, but The Porter was still busy fermenting).

So I picked up Pressure Drop's Porter instead, which didn't earn a mention in the owner-employee Porter debate, but came in a nice can.

Pressure Drop | Fashion

^{Porter | Alc 6.5% | Canned on 5.2.2021}

Colour

Pours very black, with a dark khaki head.

Nose

Freshly unwrapped Lindt truffles, sesame oil stir-fry and an old bag of coffee beans.

Mouth

Deceptively light at first sip, but later a bit sticky - like peanut butter without the peanuts or butter. Hardly bitter, quite a low malt profile and very little perceived alcohol. A touch of sour, otherwise chocolately and dry through the middle with some smoke in the finish.

5/10

There are interesting aspects to this, but overall it wasn't my jam. There was very little malt in the backbone and it's quite dry - two things I'd usually be a fan of, but all they do is throw off the balance of it all. The vegetal aspects and the citrusy sour notes don't do well here and feel like flaws. Maybe this is supposed to be some obscure sub-style of Porter that I'm unfamiliar with (very possible) but I don't really get it.

jay