Surprised to find this today at the Manulife store. 500ml bottle. Nice label but no indication of Trafalgar's participation as noted on the LCBO website. Haven't tried it yet.

i usually take the bolded portion as a buyer beware.

Just forced it down. No loss of vision or bowel control yet.

Enjoyed it. Good flavour but a bit thin. Waiting for Mr. Gillman to weigh in on how well it hews to style.

Well, I'll be happy to offer my opinion, but meanwhile, you may judge for yourself, using these remarks on porter from the 1840's as your guide:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=EZGwp5e ... hl=en&ei=i

Empyreumatic means a scorched, burned/smoky taste - hallmark then as now of porter.

Gary

I saw the new bottle. Got excited. Picked it up. Remembered that it's bottled by Trafalgar. Suddenly a rush of awful, awful memories over-whelmed me. I put it back down.

Probably will still try it at some point, and it's nice to see a new product unexpectedly show up (plus all sorts of pleasant childhood memories of High Park and Black Creek Pioneer Village, that don't involved beer somehow though...). But I'll have my reciept in one hand ready to bring back and get a refund if it turns out, well, Trafalgarized.

My wife and I did the BlackCreek tour last March. It was interesting and one I would recommend.

Although not a fan of Trafalgar, I did enjoy the beer at Blackcreek and brought home a growler of the IPA. The stout too was quite good. Based on our experience that day, I plan to pick up some Porter to try.

I've sampled this beer on site at the BC pioneer brewery and now the bottled version....It tastes like Trafalger had nothing (repeat nothing) to do with the brewing.

I was pleasantly surprised/impressed with this beer as it seems like an authentic replication of pre prohibition colonial pub porter... typical of those served at the rural taverns along the coach roads in the area....modest carbonation, great roastiness, very sessionable...a mild colonial pub porter....perhaps too well refined (conditioned) for the 2 penny ales they served thirsty stage travelers.

Huh, interesting.

It would be pretty difficult - if not impossible - for them to brew enough for a full bottling run at the Black Creek location. Maybe one of the Black Creek brewers oversaw it being brewed at Trafalgar?

Whatever the case, I'll have to pick up a bottle soon and give it a shot.

give it a week until the trafalgar ``house character'' sets in...

Well, Roger Mittag had this to say about the beer on his blog

"I happened to be purchasing beer for my most recent Prud’homme Certification class and lo and behold, I found something I hadn’t had before. The label and bottle intrigued me and upon further inspection, I found a Black Creek Porter. Just a short year ago, this small artisanal brewery was created on the heels of the Black Creek Brewfest that had been running for two years. I must admit that BC Pioneer Village is a very cool place to have a brewery and I know the goals are to provide the malt and hops from the Village. Why not - they have hop plants already and a grist mill just waiting to be put into better use.
Porters were the drink of choice among turn of the century (20th) beer drinkers. This one comes in at 5% ABV and shows a beautiful burgundy and auburn hue with touches of light brown. The mocha coloured foam is fairly dense for a porter.
The nose is not as complex as the flavours but still yields the typical coffee, chocolate and caramel you might come to expect. The body is cafe mocha - notes of chocolate and coffee are abundant with hints of roasted grain and burnt toast coming through as it warms. The carbonation is fairly light. The finish is quite pleasant. There is a decent amount of bitterness but not the kind that whacks you in the head. This bitterness appears slowly and lingers very nicely. There is also a nice dry texture in the mouth and you can almost taste tiramisu.
A really decent porter in my eyes and the packaging is first class. Give it a shot after dinner in a nice snifter and you might be surprised.
Cheers"

The beer is brewed in Trafalgar's facilities but it's brewed by Pioneer Breweries Ltd, not by Trafalgar. They don't have a commercial brewery at Black Creek Pioneer Village and their historic brewery doesn't produce enough volume to issue commercially.

The figurative qualifier is "IT tasted like Trafalgar had nothing to do with it....I could say the same for Hop Nouveau...it also tastes like Trafalgar had nothing to do with the brewing.

Not meant to be taken literally Greg.

I've tried it now and while good, its husky-mocha taste brought to mind more a brown ale or even a Vienna beer than a porter. The roasted/Worcestershire taste seemed lacking, but on the other hand, porter can accommodate a spectrum of tastes.

Gary

I on the other hand was stunned and pleased with this beer, and it could easily replace Black Irish for me (I'm getting fed up with sour milk and ashtray flavors, call me picky.)

Gary I wish I knew what you meant, because you know more than me and am not saying you're wrong, but this for me screams PORTER and it makes me want to drink it. Yum!! I bet they can't keep making this quality for the price. Oh uh and the Cask version was puzzling and awful by comparison.

Well, not sure I know more. I meant that it has a flavour of dark malts but not the charred/Worcestershire sauce taste I associate with say Sleeman Porter, Black Irish Plain Porter, Sinha Stout, or Fuller's Porter. But porter did have varying tastes over the centuries and I am sure this is one version of it, but not a classic version IMO. I agree with you that Black Irish Plain Porter can taste tart sometimes, when that happens I use it in blending. 2 parts Fuller's Porter with 1 part Black Irish makes a superb vatted (historical) porter.

Gary

Good god Gary, you must be very old indeed to say that with such an air of assurance. Surely you didn't try that back in the early 1800s?