RCH Old Slug Porter

Well, what was that about raining and pouring? Here's another dark ale from a brewery that I had not heard of before I tried their bitter as part of my sixty beers. The brewery in question is RCH of Weston-super-Mare and the beer was Steam Bitter - see review on July 29.

As might be expected, this is quite similar to the Red Rock Dark Ness, though it has a little bit more body that made it more to my taste. The derivation of the name is quite interesting. Apparently, in the old RCH brewery they had a problem with slugs getting into the brewery. As the beer leaves a trail down the glass as you drink it like a slug, that's how the beer was named.

Information about the contents however is almost as sparse as with Red Rock Dark Ness. Although we are informed that "...the key to [Old Slug's] nutty, woody flavours, chocolatey finish and honeyed toffee nose is quality West Country ingredients and a long maturation period - as well as adding no artificial preservatives in the brewing process", all the label tells us is that it contains barley and may contain wheat, oats, rye and spelt. No mention of hops at all, let alone the variety!

It is bottle-conditioned and the ABV is 4.5%