Right before New Year's, Indianapolis got its newest brewery in the Flat12 Bierwerks. Located in the Holy Cross neighborhood on the city's Near Eastside, Flat12 boasts an impressive lineup of six year-round beers with two seasonal brews (and the promise of more seasonal brews to come!). Best of all, it's about two blocks away from my brother's house. Now I can get delicious local beer and see my favorite nieces in a single trip!
When I visited on January 2, the tasting room was offering samples of the Upside Down Blonde, Half Cycle IPA, and Flat12 Porter. Each beer had plenty to recommend, but I walked out with a growler of the Porter, feeling pretty good about a beer style that I don't usually go for. I enjoyed the 2-oz. sample cup, but would I feel the same way after a full pint?
The only way to tell, of course, was to pour myself a glass. It's probably not fair, but I deliberately wanted to have this back-to-back with the Breckenridge Vanilla Porter to get a sense of the style, since I don't really have any experience with porters.
The head was light brown and filled about 1/3 of the glass. The color? Darker than dark. I held the glass up to a light to get a sense of the color, and hand to God, the room got darker. Light cannot escape the surface of this beer. This porter means it.
Speaking of aggressive, the first thing I noticed about the aroma was coffee. Lots of coffee. After a couple sniffs, I was also able to smell freshly-baked dark bread that's been soaking in coffee for a day or so.
The taste is also dark. The coffee flavor is certainly prevalent, but there are chocolate and caramel hanging out on the edges. The mouthfeel is definitely reminiscent of a heavy dark bread. At the back, I could taste some bitter flavors that almost certainly came from the malt rather than the hops. It's not as sweet overall as the Breckenridge porter, but it's certainly more complex and feels more like a "grownup" beer.
I don't really like coffee (in fact, I gave up caffeine entirely several years ago), and I had to persuade myself to try a porter. After this, I'm glad I did. If you want to give porters a try, there's a great one just east of Downtown Indy.
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