Flat Earth Cygnus X-1 Porter

Flat Earth Cygnus X-1 Porter

Named after a black hole and a song, this is a porter like no other. We took an old English porter recipe, added some rye malt, and our porter was born. This brew floods your palate with hints of chocolate, biscuit and all-around roasty goodness with just a touch of smoke that finishes dry but is not overpowering. Perfect with roasts or fowl. Enjoy by the fire, and it will certainly warm you on any cold evening in the Great White North.


* O.G. 1065

* SRM 25
3.3
157 reviews
St. Paul, United States

Community reviews

3.3 Enjoyed with Lowther’s. Nice malty porter, nuts and dark forest fruits. Nothing that leaps out but would never turn down.
2.3 Bottle. Black with a thin tan head. Aroma is roasty and biscuity. Taste is roasty, soy sauce and peanuts. A little hoppiness in finish. Palate is thin and seltzery. Something is off with this one.
3.4 Dark pour, receding tan head. Aroma of roasted grain, cocoa, and leather. Taste is roast, cardboard, chocolate flakes, and burnt grain. Okay porter.
3.5 22 oz bomber into a tulip glass. No date indicated but the bottle was quite dusty. Pours a dark brown body which borders on black. Two fingers of mocha foam which sticks around for a while. Moderate level of lacing. The aroma is of roast, light chocolate, and some faint oxidation in the form of dark fruits. Taste is roasted malts into some vinous red wine and dark fruits. Appears to be a tad over the hill and off, but it still remains drinkable. Mouthfeel is creamy but the beer has a certain mineral quality which detracts quite a bit. Overall this is clearly a beer that gets ruined with age. This must have at least a year or so on it and oxidation is seeping in and messing with the delicate porter notes. Drink fresh!
3.7 Deep brown with a tall khaki head. Roasted malt, a smokiness that increases as it approaches room temperature, and a ginger-like bitterness. Sweeter at first/when cold but bitterness increases with temp as well. Body is heavier with an oily feel. Poured from a bomber, first glass was better.
3.0 Bottle. The look is dirt, dry, earth, malt, vinegar, and eh. The look is dark, brown to black, beige head. The taste malts, roasty, vinegar, lactic, burnt, and dry.
3.1 Black with a decent off-white head. Aroma is heavy in roasted malt. Taste is roasted malt, coffee, light vinegar.
3.4 Chocolate aspects that’d you’d expect with something strange coming from whatever spices they’re using. Just average overall.
0.9 Strong chocolate taste upfront that quickly disappears into a really thin porter.
2.5 Bomber. Pours dark with no head. Aroma is typical roasted malts. Flavor is boring. Hard to describe but nothing special.
2.3 Bomber rec’d in trade to glass. Not much aroma some coffee. Nice black pour. Now it goes downhill. Very thin palate. Flavor sucked. Sour lactic and metallic were the flavors if that is what u call it. Drain pour
3.9 Had a nice chocolate roast scent, really smooth coffee flavor. Nice dark brown pour from a growler.
2.2 Originally reviewed: 10/7/09. Bomber poured into my pint glass. Pours a cloudy dark muddy brown with a thin tan head on top. Fair retention, but leaves little to no lacing. Smells like freshly ground coffee right off the bat, then this dulls to scents of earth and bread. The mouth is pretty average. Some carbonation play, and slight creamy feel. This is a pretty sour porter. The roasted coffee flavors I was expecting are absent. In their place is a sour mineral flavor that isn’t all that pleasant. I had higher expectations for this, but I couldn’t even finish the bottle. Not impressed.
3.4 On tap @ Stub and Herb’s. Deep brown brew with a ring of tan head. Lots of coffee aroma with some roasted malt and rye spice. Rye is even more present in the flavor but overall is a bit thin and lacking.
3.8 Pours a thin black-brown with a thin, small brown head. Nose and taste are nutty, chocolate, crisp, a bit of roastiness, with a bit of tart on the tail. Solid beer.
3.6 Poured into an English pint from a 650ml bottle undated. A: Opaque brown body light only visible through the edges, thick rocky and dense tan head which clings to the glass as it shrinks. S: Slight smoked aroma with roasted coffee, chocolate, and a slight spice. T: Roasted coffee into dark chocolate with a slight spice. Slight nut flavor in the middle. Decent porter with good flavor. M: Medium bodied with fizzy carbonation. O: Solid porter with good drinkability.
3.2 Bottle. Ashy coffee malt and aroma. Dark brown with a small tan head. Sour malt, coffee, ash, and slight spice flavor. Quite tart, but not unpleasant Medium body and carbonation.
3.1 a bit thin and watery. Better aroma than taste.
3.2 Bottle shared by MrPickles...thanks Andy! - Pours clear dark brown with a thin tan ring of head. Coffee on the nose, with light roast and chocolatey notes. Real light and smooth. Taste is pretty flat, with some coffee and chocolate notes, a bit of molasses, and a sugary sweetness. Finishes with a roasty coffee note that slowly fades away, along with a dark fruit note. Thin in the mouth with decent carbonation.
3.4 Bottle to.glass. lots of coffee aroma. It also has a nice roasting.was as well as a bit of dark chocolate. Dark brownish black pour with a large tan head. a little dry on the finish. Nice and clean. Very refreshing for a porter. Another solid flat earth offering. Love their stuff.
3.9 Bottle from mattyb83. Very deep brown pour with a full tan head. The aroma shows coffee roast, with dark chocolate, and just a touch of pine and dark fruit. Getting quite a bit of a woody leafy scent as this breaths. Smooth going down with a sooty ash flavor to go with coffee, chocolate, and a kiss of sweet toffee. It definitely has a mocha thing going on. A nice dark chocolaty finish seems to linger. There’s some herbal hops and a light spice that mixes well with neither overdone. Good balance. The body is fairly full and creamy which allows this to glide along nicely. This is really solid stuff. One of the better Porters I’ve had, actually. I’d be interested in trying some of the variations of this as they sound tasty as well. Thanks Matt!
2.9 Dark roasty color with little head. Sweet but with a bitter aftertaste. Strong yeast aroma. Roasty and ashy. Good, not great.
3.6 Date: September 24, 2011 Mode: Bottle Source: Minneapolis Beer Fest. Full description not available as I sampled way too many beers in 4.5 hours!
3.5 Bottle from a trade with CLevar. Pours clear brown color with tan head. Roasted malt and chocolate aromas. Burnt malt flavor with some milk chocolate and coffee; slightly ashy. Medium body with soft carbonation. Thanks Caleb.
3.5 Tap. Deep, dark brown in color with a small khaki head. Aroma is roast malt, chocolate, a touch of cinnamon, and some hints of rye. Taste is slightly sweeter. Nice roasted character mixed with chocolate that gives this a mocha like character. Some nice rye spice rounds this out. Slightly dry. Lighter body for a porter, but not at all too light. Really nice porter.
3.4 From the 22oz bottle. Pours a reddish black with an off white head. Aroma is chocolate, toffee and light herbs. Smooth mocha taste with just a touch of hops poking through.
3.3 Growler @ Flat Earth. Dark brown/black appearance with a light tan head. Very roasty dark malty nose. Quite roasty, slightly burnt, dark chocate malty flavor with a slight espresso taste. Pretty roasty finish.
3.6 Tap at stubs. Very dark brown with a light tan head that fades quickly. Not a ton of lacing. Aroma is light smoke, lots of burnt malt, coco, and some coffee. Taste has coffee up front, followed by some dark malt and roastyness in the middle, finishing with some burnt malt bitterness. Just a hint of the rye spice in the middle, though this comes out as it warms. Perhaps a bit of dark fruit in the middle as well. A nice porter, though it edged on being more "burnt" than "roast".
3.5 22 ounce shared wit Seth. Very carbonated. Light body. Somewhat roasty. Not an intense porter, but decent overall.
3.3 Bottled sample. Near black in colour with medium carbonation. Aromas are of strong caramel, milk chocolate, and light herbal hops. Quite mellow in the mouth with the emphasis firmly on caramel and mild chocolate flavours. Fairly sweet overall, but there is a bit of faint spice and herbal hop character on the back end. Nice enough, but I would have prefered a little less sweet and a little more of those savory characteristics.