Merci Stef for sending this my way! Today I'm checking out Zeste Noire Porter by Microbrasserie Nouvelle France. I've been somewhat familiar with Nouvelle France for a very long time, longer than most craft breweries - they were the first brewery that made me aware that a gluten-free beer existed with their Messagère Blonde.. and that's back in 2003-2004. I only tried their beer once and that was back in 2014, where I recalled stating it was not bad, especially for a gluten free Pilsner. Now here we are, several years later, actually reviewing one of their beers for the first time, their Zeste Noire Porter au zeste de citron, which is a Porter with lemon zest (and has gluten).
From the can: Smooth, creamy mouthfeel, thick sticky head, our Porter offers rich flavours of biscuit, chocolate, and coffee with subtle touch of lemon zest added during the brewing process. 5.4% ABV / 20 IBU. Wheat Barley, Oat for malt/grain, Centennial (100% QC), Magnum, Columbus
Appearance: Very dark, near black appearance with a moderate amount of caramel/cookie dough head on top that diminishes rather quickly to have a minimal to almost no head on top.. just a few bubbles here and there.
Aroma: This has winter in a can kind of vibe to me - Winter means stouts and porters to me and this is exactly it. It's rich, earthy, sweet and bitter - there's notes of coffee and rich dark maltiness, a surprising amount of peanutty aroma that I really didn't expect, as well as a bit of milk and dark chocolate, and a hint of peat. Quite sweet.
Taste: The first thing I get from the tasting notes is a very peanut-forward presence again, though not quite peanut buttery. It's sweet with notes of dark chocolate, roasted malt and coffee. The beer is quite earthy with a lot of roastiness to it.. but I do get a bit of lemon zest popping up once every sip or two... which I'm not sure if I like or not, so I'm thinking I'm not really liking as it's a very roasty-forward Porter to begin with.
Overall Thoughts: Decent Porter - it's rich, earthy, bitter, chocolatey.. so pretty much what I want in a Porter but the lemon zest is seriously unneeded, but definitely something a bit more experimental for a Porter. Would I drink this again? Yeah, for sure!
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