These days when I write a beer review, the process normally flows as follows: I pop the beer with a clean palate, take my tasting notes without looking at other impressions to form my own honest opinions, and then move on to the next beer to do the same. Normally, I’ll only take notes on two or three beers in a sitting, lest palate fatigue set in and skew my impressions. Then I normally flesh out my tasting notes within a few days with details on the beer from my experience and information from the brewer.
That’s not how things went with Cherry Street Brewing Cooperative’s Chief Sawnee’s Stash Coconut Porter, though. Nope, not at all. In this case, renowned beer traveler Erik Bierbiker was on his way back from an impressive cross-country beer tour that saw him visiting breweries from Virginia to California, back through Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia on the way home. A stop here in canton allowed us to sample a few fine brews at my local Taco Mac, and then home for growlers from Stout’s Growlers.
One of these, of course, was Chief Sawnee’s Stash Coconut Porter. Cherry Street does a porter without coconut, of course, called Sawnee Mountain Porter. This is a variation on that beer, as I will let Cherry Street explain:
We take the Sawnee Mountain Porter and added toasted coconut flakes, caramelized dates, and vanilla bean to create a beer so good, even Chief Sawnee would hide it in his cave.
Chief Sawnee’s Stash Coconut Porter has an alcohol content of 6% by volume with 29 IBUs. I paid $7.50 for a 32 ounce growler at Stouts. I didn’t take tasting notes on this one folks, but it was memorable enough that I can still taste it in my mind’s palate.
As you can see in the picture, Cherry Street Brewing Cooperative’s Chief Sawnee’s Stash Coconut Porter pours jet black with a thick creamy tan head and a soft chocolate nose with just the faintest hints of coconut and vanilla. Taking a sip, the beer was exceedingly smooth in body with good chocolate, subtle vanilla and subtler coconut. Coconut is not an intense flavor to begin with, but I’ve found that in most beers I’ve tried that use it as an ingredient, it is subtler still. A balancing roastiness finished this beer out quite nicely.
I only got faint coconut, and Erik didn’t seem to get much of it either. I got enough along with the vanilla to make this one interesting, though, and certainly a beer I will buy again. And I promise, next time I’ll take more detailed notes. Meanwhile, go and get some and take your own.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft