Ah, the wonderful city of Portland.  The longer I am away from it, the more perfect it becomes in my mind.   Sure, it’s full of hippies, but look past that!  The people have a positivity about them.  It is like they are all on the same page.  Environment? Check!  None of this bullshit where flat-earthers tell them to “stop building transit” and  “fuck recycling, it’s a waste of time.”  Portland don’t play that!  Portland has no doubt.  Like it… or get out.

Portland is a city of progress, art, nature, and granola.

If you take the character of the city of Portland and put it in a bottle, you would get something like Harvester Brewing Dark Ale.  It is the quintessential Portland beer… or at least it should be.

A nice dark beer on Hawthorne on a summer evening, stressing about my 26 final exams, trying to escape… looking at the flickering lights of the Baghdad Theatre… Smelling pizza that I could hardly afford… This was Portland for me.

As I look at the belgian lace left on my pint glass on my desk, I am almost teleported back to that time, a nice time.  Not as nice as now, but nonetheless, a nice time.

This dark ale is a real treat, and the faint of heart should not shy away from it.  It has a smooth sweet taste.  The colour is a dark rich red.  It has excellent, persistent head.  There is an intense caramel aroma and caramel and liqueur taste.  The aftertaste lingers only for a few moments.

The intensity smooths out even more as you finish it, and the oatmeal taste begins to surface.

This is clean-tasting with excellent flavour, and a lot of personality.

Harvester Brewing Dark Ale

5/5 G1