John Sleeman Presents Fine Porter

John Sleeman Presents Fine Porter

Also known as Porter 68.

Brewed in small batches and limited quantities, Fine Porter is the first of the John Sleeman Presents series. Taken right from page 68 of the family recipe book, it pays homage to the original Porters of Great Britain, and was brewed by George Sleeman back in the 1800s.


Tasting Notes: Fine Porter is one of the more flavourful styles of ale. It has a rather bold, malty taste and a deep, rich colour.
2.8
220 reviews
Guelph, Canada

Community reviews

2.0 Some dark malts and caramel. Lots of bitterness. Palate is pretty nasty, burning and more bitterness. 070912
2.7 Originally reviewed Dec. 31, 2006: light tan head that was minimal. dark amber colour. slight hint of stale chocolate smell. first hit of bitter taste that fades to a weak coffee taste. low aftertaste. overall decent porter.
2.9 341ml bottle pours a pale amber brown color with a small white head which left only a few specks of lacing on the glass. Aroma is light roasted grains and caramel with some subtle hop notes. Taste is light roast bitterness with some caramel malty sweentess and a mild hop bitterness in the finish. Color and body are quite light for the style and carbonation is moderate. Nothing really special here.
2.8 Aroma is light and malty. Color is much lighter than you’d expect in a porter, more a reddish brown than brown/black. Limited head which disappeared in a minute or so. Taste is smooth and slightly coppery - reminds me more of a red or brown ale than a porter - much as the color suggests. Medium carbonation with a pleasant lingering malt aftertaste. I feel like this beer would rate better if it wasn’t pretending to be a porter.
2.1 Aroma is pleasant but a bit mild for a porter. Not quite black, show medium-dark brown when held up to light. Malt and some bitterness coming through in taste, hard to believe this is a porter. Meh.
2.0 A rating from an old notebook. Bottle. Dark brown with a thick tan head. Boring malty aroma with a bit of fruit. Medium body, odd sweetness leading to a sour finish. A bit of cigarette ash in there. Strange and quite unpleasant.
3.5 Bouteille 341 ml. 5,5%. Couleur brune foncée, mousse beige. Arôme de malt grillé, caramel. Goût de caramel, malt, un peu de chocolat, douce en bouche. Finale un peu sucrée, peu amère. Bonne
3.6 Originally came out November 2004 in a 12-pack, now available in a Sleeman mixed pack in Quebec. Worth re-rating it as I really enjoyed this one the first time around. Like all their beers, it is filtered to the max. Still, a nice dark ruby red-brown colour comes out of it. Its head is creamy, beige coloured, has good retention and gives patchy lacing. The nose is a nice balance between the burnt malt, the dark fruits and the mild hop. Refreshing crisp mouthfeel with a slight dry finish. Plum taste, prunes and raisins. I really enjoy the balance of the smoke from the burnt malt and the hop in the finish, that lingers into the aftertaste. Probably Sleeman’s best brew.
2.9 Bottle. Dark red-brown with a thin beige head with below average retention. Nothing much in the aroma, sugar, a hint of roasted malt and maybe some hops. I was surprised with the flavor though nothing extravagant, there is some chocolate and coffee with very moderate bitterness and lightly roasted malt. Very drinkable, the best offering from Sleeman I have had yet.
2.7 Pours pale-brown. Nose is cereal, like corn, but there is an interesting nutty, toasty. Nicely hopped. Very thin body, but I must admit that for a Sleeman beer, it is a not-too-bad porter! Although the beer still has the Sleeman skunky feeling, maybe the clear bottle or just cheap malts and yeast...
2.7 341 ml (clear) bottle from LCBO. Pours a dark, slightly reddish cola brown with very thin tan cap. Light aroma with some roast and coffee notes. Taste has a pleasant though understated roastiness and a little coffee-ish bitterness. Fine, fairly mild carbonation. Fine but not great.
2.4 why clear bottle? terrible. pours fairly dark with slight head. aromas are cereal and grain, like corn malts or something. little roast, more like an adjunct ale than a porter. palate is lightly roasted and some coffee bean. there is light body, in its class of beers it is boring and terrible, but for sleeman it is pretty darn good. i’m not wasting any more time on this one.
2.7 341ml bottle. A little light in colour for a porter - about the colour of watered down coke with a light tan head that leaves very little lace. Slight coffee nose with some underlying hops and a hint of spice but it all seems out of balance. Tastes more like cola and coffee poured together with notes of chocolate fading in and out and a weird funk through the finish, but slightly interesting.
3.1 Poured nice dark brown with very little head. Malty aroma with coffee hints, and slightly sweet. Malt flavor with roastiness, coffee with a mild hoppy finish. Since it is a porter, I was expecting a more robust and complex flavor, but it seemed to me more like a strong brown ale. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but I guess I was expecting more.
3.4 Medium brown in color with small tan head. Aroma is a bit off - slightly metallic. Flavor initially is sweet and malty - definitely a brown porter and not a robust porter. Finishes crisp and slightly hoppy. Not bad for an English style porter.
3.0 As a beer, its really not to bad, but as a porter, its kind of a fail. The aroma is mild, and lager like, but with light notes of coffee and roastiness, It kind of smells like they had a lager, but added roasted malts for the colour more than anything. The flavor again, is a little better, starts out smooth, coffee, burnt chocolate, roastiness, bitter, a little on the soapy side, but not too bad. The mouth feel is watery for porter. Really not very porter like, but drinkable, and tasty enough to remain interesting. But the soapy finish would make this beer and unlikely candidate for a session ale.
3.6 07/2007, known as Porter 68: The color is a deep mahogany red. There is a rocky cardboard-brown head. It’s not altogether thick, really. Some glassy depth to the look of it. Has a really pleasant, deep and dark berry smell with just that hint of coffee. The coffee smell is milder than most porters, and that’s not a bad thing. Has a good mix of both sweet and bitter. Nice cherry, really nice. The taste comes across much more bitter than the smell. The sweet cherry/berry is only an accent. The coffee comes through a lot stronger in the taste than in the smell. It does sweeten as it warms. The feel is bitter on the tongue. Not real thick but creamy enough. It’s actually relatively smooth for a porter; doesn’t have the usual sandpaper viscosity. Pleasant, not thick or dry. The drink overall is thin but pleasant. It’s bitter first, sweet second. Really easy to drink.
3.0 341 ml bottle from brewery. Pours dark brown with red tinges, small cappucino coloured head. Not a tonne of aroma, but nice sweet malty taste. Pretty good!
3.8 Sleeman Brewing & Malting Company, Ltd.--Porter 68*--2006 Release--11.5 oz. Bottle--5.50% ABV--30 IBU’s? (4.0 / 5.0) Porter. Mild lacy tan head. Clear thin dark bronze red color. Mild burnt hop front. Smooth mild dry sweet crusty biscuit thin roasted toffee black cherry body. Crisp odd mild tangy clean hop end. Well made. Sampled 5/25/2006.
3.2 (br-btl cm/rd-lbl(neck only), Sleeman Brewing & Malting Co, 9¢/oz) lct-br, thin-tan-head, patchy-lace, med-body, ^co2. bready alchl aroma, sweet-chclt-malt §chrcl T1 chclt-malt §leafy-hop T2 chrd-malt T3. too^-co2, too-thin, needs more bitter and aroma hops, fairly drinkable, not bad or special.
2.6 Got this on a whim from a mix-6... wasn’t impressed at all by this guy. Boring and bland for a porter for sure.
2.8 Bottle, porter #68. Pours a dark brown body with a large tan head. Sweet malty body with a lighter acrid acid malt character. Malty with some light coco and minerals. Eh its a miss.
2.4 Really difficult to get much off the nose...quite muted. Flavour is simply too bitter. It cloys to the mouth and won’t let anything else show its face. Very frothy beer...foams up in the mouth extensively. Only the finish shows signs of a deeper body with some personality - hint of nut and pine.
3.3 Bottle. Pours thin and brown and whatever. This is a thin porter, but its the best of both worlds. It has a nice malty taste and thin body - good to drink is larger quantities. I’ll defend this one- thin, not the best. . but it has it’s purpose and a good taste.
2.1 Really didn’t like it. Aroma is chocolate and malt. Taste is a strong malt and bitter coffee. If you are into that, this might be for you, not for me.
3.0 Deep amber color with a nice tan head. Light aroma of coffee and chocolate. Slightly sweet flavor, very malty with a dry finish.
1.9 Bottle: Poured a brown color, way to light for a porter. This whole beer was way to off to be a porter. The flavor was good, but not the quality of a porter. I hope batch 69 is better than this, batch 68.
2.9 11.5 oz bottle. Pours brown color with a cream color head that has decent lacing and retention. Aroma is a bit malty and a hint of honey but there is also bit of a hop presence...maybe a bit too much. Flavor is slightly chocolatey and mildly sweet. Its not as roasty as I like my porters though. I think the mouthfeel is a bit too thin also. Not a bad beer just not a great representation of a modern day porter.
2.7 Bottle. Poured a dark red color with a thin tan head. Aroma of honey and some roasted malt. Flavor was malty, but doesn’t pick up any of the notes in the aroma, and the body is very thin. Bad beer.
0.5 Bottle Sleeman Porter 68. I have a cold so my rating will be vague. MId bodied. This rating is so I remember to re rate it.