Harpoon Brewing Company - Catamount Porter

The Catamount Porter is a dark, rich, brown porter with a thick & creamy tan head. It's brewed with no less than seven different types of malts along with Nugget and Yakima Goldings hops. We found it a hugely aromatic brew, slightly sweet, with a big roasted coffee nose which also hinted of chocolate and caramel. Look for a very creamy and smooth mouthfeel. The flavor profile is complex, bursting with notes of coffee, chocolate, sweet malts, caramel, and roasted malts. There is a slight hint of the citrus hops in the moderately dry finish. Overall, a complex, full-bodied porter that would pair nicely with nicely with the French Roquefort cheese featured this month in our Gourmet Cheese of the Month Club.

The Harpoon Brewing Company first opened its doors on the Boston waterfront back in 1986. It originally started with four employees; the three founders, which were classmates at Harvard, and one very important employee &their brewer! Today, Harpoon staffs 60 employees at two brewery locations. One of the more interesting stats about the brewery, besides that fact that their beer was the first to be brewed and bottled in Boston since 1964, is that they brew more beer than any other New England brewery.

The Harpoon Brewing Company has gone through several changes in the last few years. In the summer of 2000, they purchased the Catamount Brewery, which is located near the banks of the Connecticut River in Windsor, Vermont. This allowed them to increase the capacity of their Boston brewery and also allowed them the opportunity to brew several other brands and styles of beers.

The Harpoon Brewing Company brews ten styles of beers under the Harpoon name and three styles of beers under the Catamount brand. Our panel was lucky enough to try most of these beers and had a hard time this month trying to decide which ones to feature. But in the end, we settled in on the Catamount line and know that you'll enjoy them both!

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (888) HARPOON or check out their web site at www.harpoonbrewery.com.