Hooray, it’s suddenly gone cold and rainy in Cape Town! (Well, at least it had when I wrote this before the weekend)

I hate rain (there’s a reason I left the UK) and despise being cold (there’s a reason I moved to Africa) but I am happy about this change in weather for two reasons – first, we really needed some rain. Dams are empty and I was starting to fear that my hay-like lawn would burst into flames if we had one more day over 30 degrees. But more importantly than that, it means that certain beer styles come to the fore again. After months of pilsner, it’s time for a bit of porter. We had three porters in the cupboard, so decided to do a blind taste-off. I like games almost as much as I like beer.

The three contenders all hail from the Western Cape – Aegir Project’s Midnight Porter (5% ABV), Wild Clover’s Black Dog Porter (5.5%) and Red Sky’s Vampire Robust Porter (6%). I’ve long been a fan of Red Sky’s rich porter, wrote a complimentary review of Aegir’s version when it was first released and when Wild Clover relaunched with a larger brewery and smart new premises this year, the porter was a big hit, so the competition here was stiff.

The tasting was blind – I poured for Shawn and when he’d finished taking notes and keeping his opinions to himself, he poured three tasters for me. I’m a blind tasting purist, so I even kept my eyes closed while sipping. Must buy myself a beer-themed blindfold…

Sample 1: We both found this to be a little thinner and less flavourful than the other two. We did pick up plenty of coffee and a touch of liquorice and it was clearly a well-made beer. There were some savouriy, gravy-like aromas going on in the background thought, and we thought the carbonation had let it down a tad – it was fairly fizzy which made it feel a little lacking in body.

Sample 2: On first whiff there was a vinous quality to this one, and a hint of musty cupboard (I’m just typing up my blindfolded thoughts which Shawn kindly jotted down while I was tasting). Plenty of coffee and chocolate – it reminded me of those coffee creams that get left at the bottom of your box of Quality Street at Christmas. It was a pretty complex beer though the wine-like quality was ever so slightly off-putting.

Sample 3: A definite malty sweetness lingered in the background when I sniffed this one, which blended with the chocolate notes made me instantly think of Maltesers. I definitely wanted to drink this. Not as rich as #2 but with more body than #1, it was an easy-drinking brew with a touch of sweetness behind all the coffee and dark chocolate.

And the winner is….

We tasted each beer several times, always in a different order and the winner shone through every time. Not that we were judging to BJCP guidelines or anything, but on the BJCP scoresheet there is a small section labelled “Intangibles” – that je ne sais quois which just makes you enjoy one beer over another. Porter #3 had that intangible something and came out a clear winner. Congratulations Wild Clover, your Black Dog made a rainy Saturday much more pleasant!

Try your own Porter Smackdown – grab three, taste them blind and let us know the results!