O'Hanlons Original Port Stout

I don't need to tell you about O'Hanlons Brewery, as this is all contained in the post for January 4. Original Port Stout is one of O'Hanlons core brands, that is produced all year round, while Royal Oak that featured in the earlier post is a special brand, which is brewed only occasionally. This beer gets its name from the fact that it is enriched with Ruby Port.

The O'Hanlons website says that "'This is one of John [O'Hanlon]’s originals. The idea comes from having worked in his aunt Mary’s Feale bar back in Ballybunion. The Dry Stout recipe from which it is drawn had a lower original gravity than now, as it used a lower attenuating strain of yeast. We changed the yeast to allow more of the malt character to come through."

The malt grist then was as now apart from instead of just roast barley it then had a combination of that and chocolate malt and black malt. We took the view that any perceived benefit from having three different but very similar ingredients would be outweighed by having one kept much fresher. It would have taken us months to get through a sack of chocolate malt in those days."

The biggest change was the introduction of an aroma hop, which at the time was completely absent. Styrian Goldings was chosen as I had noted the vinous notes elicited by the marriage with the darker malts in the Red Ale. Finally the original gravity of the Port Stout was upped to 1046 around about 2001 for the bottled market where it has twice won CAMRA Champion bottle-conditioned beer. We have no plans to make any more changes!'

The website also gives some tasting notes, which seem accurate to me but are far more detailed than I would provide, so I thought I would include them too.

Colour: Dark chestnut-brown colour with ruby highlights.

Aroma: mocha coffee, milk chocolate and a hint of roasted malt, with whispers of vanilla, soot, chocolate brownie and chocolate milk.

Palate: mocha coffee, bitter chocolate, roasted malt and in the background the sweetness of the port; there’s also a brief flash mid-palate of hoppy pepperiness and a fruitiness similar to that of currants (vinous), just to make sure all the sweetness doesn’t overwhelm things.

Finish: dry, grainy, malty finish with a whisper of mocha and the return of the fruit.

It all adds up to a very fine drop of stout - I am not surprised that it has won all those awards! Apparently, it was inspired by a traditional 'morning-after' reviver.

It is 4.8% ABV and like all O'Hanlons bottled beers it is bottle conditioned.