Rogue Mocha Porter

First Brewed: Sometime before 2001
Brewery Location: Newport, Oregon, United States
ABV: 5.2%

History & Availability: Another one of Rogue's more popular beers, the Mocha Porter (previously the New Porter, from the brewery's location in Newport) was Rogue's first true porter and remains the one of the most popular of its darker beers today. Although it's not as widespread as Dead Guy Ale, I found it by chance in New Hampshire, so if you keep an eye out you should be able to find this without too much trouble in the more microbrewery-intensive shops and pubs.

Appearance: A deep chocolatey brown, looks almost like a root beer float coming out of the bottle. Huge, dark head with superb retention. This is definitely a porter alright. A close look reveals a little carbonation at the edges, but there may be more that is unseen because of how dark and thus opaque the beer is.

Smell: Surprisingly, there is not an overwhelming scent of coffee or chocolate as I expected the beer might have. Instead there is only a slight hint of coffee and more of a strong sweet malty smell.

Taste: Super sweet. The chocolate really only comes out in the aftertaste but then you can certainly taste it. It's really dominated by the malts, and interestingly there's not much hop bitterness at all, despite the bottle proclaiming a "bittersweet" taste. It's a little bitter, sure, but the sweetness is definitely coming to the forefront here. Now of course this doesn't mean it's a soda or anything, but the hops are just in the backseat on this one.

Mouthfeel: Astoundingly light. This has got to be the lightest porter I've ever tasted. The carbonation is also surprisingly low for how much head the beer retains. Besides the previously-mentioned chocolatey aftertaste, there's not much left behind at all in terms of consistency. Not at all what I expected, but I'm definitely ok with it.

Drinkability: High. Not too high on the alcohol content which is a problem that plagues many porters, and also unlike most beers in the style it's very light-bodied. The only thing that holds you back here is the fact that it sells for around $7 per 22-oz bottle, which is probably too much for most people to really have more than one of too frequently.

Overall verdict: B+. It's good enough that I'd look for it again, but if the more ubiquitous Dead Guy from the same brewery is on tap, I'll prefer that.