Parking Ban Porter

Beer Name: Parking Ban Porter
Brewery: Northampton Brewery
ABV: 5.3%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I don't know how it is in other states, but western Massachusetts is pretty blessed with local breweries. I'd assume it's like this in other states, excluding the obvious exceptions like Utah (weird beer legislation), Wyoming (more sheep than people, and sheep aren't big beer drinkers), Montana (uh, why is this a state and not part of Canada?), etc. But since I have sadly lived my whole life in western MA, with brief sojourns to Troy, NY and London, I can only speak intelligently about the local stuff here.

The Northampton Brewery would fall into the brewpub category, at least as far as my interpretation of that term goes. They've got a wide variety on tap, and what they offer varies throughout the year. They've also got food, including cheeseburgers, the food of the gods. Basically I'm saying I should go there more often, but it's tucked away behind the parking garage and I always forget about it.

I'm not sure why, but Parking Ban Porter is not on the list of beers provided by the website. It is on the menu though, which is good enough for me. It has a very dark brown color with dark ruby highlights. It poured with a thin layer of thick head, if that makes any sense. It does to me, so we'll go with it. At first, there was some pretty heavy lacing, but then it turned into pretty faint lacing. I'm not sure what that signifies. There is a strong aroma of roasted malts and sweet coffee.

Well, the flavor is not quite what I was expecting from the aroma. It's heavy in the roasted department, but not as much in the sweetness department. I guess that's ok, but I was hoping for more of that coffee. The beer has a very strong finish, but only a faint aftertaste. As it warms up, it actually becomes more flavorful. And that's a good thing.

Final thought - While not a bad beer by any means, the flavor of the beer didn't match up to the aroma, which was disappointing. The flavor improved as the beer warmed up, so it was still pretty good. Just not what I was expecting. Damn expectations!

-Jon