{"id":1134,"date":"2010-12-15T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T11:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1134"},"modified":"2011-03-21T03:42:49","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T14:42:49","slug":"epic-dogfish-head-portamarillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/15\/epic-dogfish-head-portamarillo\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic \/ Dogfish Head ‘Portamarillo’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Epic<\/a>
Epic 'Portamarillo' tap badge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I really have turned around on Epic’s beers over the course of a few years. For too long, Luke’s products were just the perfect embodiment of that trend that bored me so horribly wherein More Hops All Other Considerations Be Damned became such a trendy and habitual thing to do. Yawn, I say, despite loving<\/em> a hop-stupid beer on occasion. I just hate to see one element<\/em> of a many-faceted thing elevated above all others and paraded about as if it’s the key to everything for all situations.1, 2<\/sup><\/p>\n

‘Mayhem’<\/a> met me halfway, being a hop-focussed but actually balanced<\/em> beer which I really enjoyed, and lately, Luke’s finally gone that final step and made some beers which let other factors entirely take the leading roles. His collaboration with England’s Thornbridge brewery produced a pretty-damn-good stout, and this ‘Portamarillo’ might just be a proper turning point, rescuing Epic from One Trick Pony status. Because honestly, no matter how<\/em> good<\/em> any particular pony’s one trick is — yawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So. Continuing along the collaboration train, Luke joined forces with Sam Caligione of the famously-experimental Dogfish Head brewery. Working together for part of Sam’s Discovery Channel TV series<\/a>, they made a uniquely New Zealandish beer by smoking tamarillos over pohutakawa and cramming them into a smooth, boozy porter. Because why not? It sounds ludicrous, but works absurdly well. I drank a lot<\/em> of it myself, as we quickly went through some two-hundred litres from the taps at work. The porter is relatively light-bodied for its strength, leaving room for the gentle smokiness and a delightfully-random tart fruitiness.<\/p>\n

Better yet, they brewed it twice. Double-better-yet, we got to try some of the U.S.-brewed<\/em> version<\/a> at work, when we threw a bit of a shindig<\/a> for the Near Enough Fifth Birthday of the Epic brewery. It was a great little exercise in how much difference little changes can make — the Dogfish version being much<\/em> smokier, the peculiar ‘sweetness’ you get from heavily-smoked malt stealing the show more from the tart fruit. The U.S. version was only available because Sam had some in his luggage, the Epic batch is still kicking around in bottles in the better sorts of retail outlets; you should get some if you haven’t yet — or just get more<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Epic \/ Dogfish Head Portamarillo 15\/12\/10 @ MH, for Epic’s Fifth-ish Birthday. The NZ brew is on tap, and we’ve got a bottle of the US batch to try. It’s an awesomely odd idea: Porter with Pohutakawa-smoked-Tamarillo. The US is darker is body + bubbles and — to me — plays up the smoke more, whereas the fruit is stronger in the NZ. The US has a crazy bitter \/ spicy late finish, the NZ seems smoother. But I really dig both.<\/p>\n

— so then (16\/12\/10), I was stopped on the street today by a regular who was asking about my blogthing. Which was enjoyably weird. But he also mentioned that Luke’s version was less smoked than Sam’s, because he didn’t want that tail-end astringency. I really must get around to watching the Making Of TV show, but it’s nice to know I was on the right track.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Dogfish<\/a>
Dogfish Head 'Portamarillo'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Epic<\/a>
Diary II entry #41.1, Epic \/ Dogfish Head 'Portamarillo'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Epic<\/a>
Diary II entry #41.2, Epic \/ Dogfish Head 'Portamarillo'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

1: The same thing, lamentably, happens with my related obsession: Scotch Whisky. There, you get “peat freaks” like you get “hop heads” with beer — indeed, I think there are similarities to be drawn all over the place between peaty whiskies and hoppy beers, but that’s a little too<\/em> tangential even for a footnote, perhaps. Myself, I love peaty whiskies. But not all the time<\/em>. Not to the point where in absolutely all cases would I think that a whisky would be improved by more peatiness. So it is with hoppy beer.<\/span><\/p>\n

2: And don’t you have to worry — at least a little<\/em> — when you read something adorned with a \u201cAdd More Hops<\/a>\u201d background or a title like \u201cI’m Here for the Hops<\/a>\u201d or \u201cThe Pursuit of Hoppiness<\/a>\u201d whether you should be discounting (in the sense of moderating-down, not “ignoring”) what they say about beers with a different emphasis? I read all three aforementioned sources avidly, but wish they didn’t position themselves so lop-sidedly. They might defend themselves by saying these things are (half?) in jest — but then, why are all<\/em> the jokes lined up in that one direction?
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really have turned around on Epic’s beers over the course of a few years. For too long, Luke’s products were just the perfect embodiment of that trend that bored me so horribly wherein More Hops All Other Considerations Be Damned became such a trendy and habitual thing to do. Yawn, I say, despite loving … Continue reading Epic \/ Dogfish Head ‘Portamarillo’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,20,30],"class_list":["post-1134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-united-states","tag-porter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1466,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/01\/12\/wanaka-brewski\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":0},"title":"Wanaka ‘Brewski’","author":"Phil","date":"January 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This must be the first bar-but-not-\u201cbeer-bar\u201d-bar in the Diary for quite some time. Either I should get out more, or more places should stock more interesting beer. Or, you know, both. I'd signed out of work early (ish, if I must relativise these things for you \"normal\" daytime people), and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wanaka 'Brewski'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wanaka-Beerworks-Brewski-Pilsener-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1983,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/02\/22\/beer-121-new-zealand-beer-for-americans\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":1},"title":"Beer 121: New Zealand Beer for Americans","author":"Phil","date":"February 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I do like a chance to get my Nerd on, have a ramble over some beers and do a bit of evangelising. Work normally provides me with plenty, but I'm always up for 'extracurricular' ones, too. Here, the brief was to lead some visiting Californians on a little tour through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer 121 tasting session lineup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-121-lineup-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3957,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/10\/beer-diary-podcast-s02e01\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":2},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s02e01: Collaboration","author":"Phil","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Back for a second 'season' -- are more-or-less arbitrary division, but we watch a fair amount of (good) TV and can't help but think of things like that -- George and I sat down a little while ago to talk about collaboration in craft beer. As always,\u00a0a\u00a0direct download\u00a0is available, there\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2297,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/27\/beer-121-the-audiobook\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":3},"title":"Beer 121: The Audiobook","author":"Phil","date":"March 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if any \/ many of you are sufficiently curious about this to actually push play -- whether to eavesdrop on a tasting session, or just to have a sample of my peculiar untraceable accent (and occasionally-substantial lisp) -- but we had buckets of fun doing this 'Beer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rambles and rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rambles and rants","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/blahblah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer 121 tasting session lineup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-121-lineup-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3098,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/26\/rescue-red\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":4},"title":"Renaissance \/ 8 Wired \/ Yeastie Boys ‘Rescue Red’","author":"Phil","date":"May 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Around a year ago, Luke Nicholas was talking to Sam Calagione and was able to apparently-accurately say that their 'Portamarillo' would be New Zealand's second-ever collaborative brew -- after the also-with-Luke Epic \/ Thornbridge Stout. Now, they're everywhere. To maybe-needlessly hammer the point: Galbraith's Alehouse is currently hosting several brewers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Renaissance, 8 Wired, Yeastie Boys 'Rescue Red'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Renaissance-8-Wired-Yeastie-Boys-Rescue-Red-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4193,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/03\/beer-diary-podcast-s02e02\/","url_meta":{"origin":1134,"position":5},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s02e02: Australia","author":"Phil","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, a brief interlude for a long-lost podcast episode. We recorded shortly before\u00a0I went away to GABS in Melbourne -- and immediately before George and I went along to Hashigo Zake's marvellous little 'X-Ale' festival in the still-empty ParrotDog brewery.\u00a0We take the chance to catch up a little on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Moon Dogs and 'Melon Gibson'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Moon-Dogs-and-Melon-Gibson-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1996,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions\/1996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}