Latest Reviews

Double Dry Hopped pseudoSue
Toppling Goliath
Modus Vivendi
Wild Beer Co.
Spaceman
Brewfist

Recent Articles

Outdoor Winter Tippling Tips
Stay safe from the pandemic and stay warm with these winter patio drinking tactics. Shameless
Craft brewer sellouts become as tone-deaf and underhanded as their new overlords. Great Taste Eve
Check out the burgeoning Madison beer scene the night before the best fest in country. Good Beer Makes Good Conversation
The effects of drinking beer worth talking about. The Beers of Walmart
The largest retailer in the world now has its own line of beers. archives »

Beer Reviews

Contorter Porter

Ale Asylum
Madison, WI
USA
http://www.aleasylum.com/

Style: Porter

Eddie’s Rating:
   (Drinkable, but flawed)


Comments:
When Dean Coffey left Madison’s Angelic Brewpub to start Ale Asylum, expectations in the beer dork community were about as high as it gets. Here was a guy with almost two decades of brewing experience, a solid body of work as brewmaster at Angelic, and a flair for Belgian-style ales. So far, though, his brewery, while pumping out solid, drinkable beers, hasn’t lived up to the potential a lot of us know is there.

Ale Asylum’s latest offering is Contorter Porter, an “English Porter,” as opposed, I assume, to a Baltic. It pours a dark brown with quite a bit of sediment in the glass. The light tan head is damn near perfect, a thick-bubbled, goopy crown. The aroma is a hint of chocolate amid a pretty quiet nose.

The taste isn’t much louder. Muted chocolate notes hide behind an overly lively carbonation. The fizzies give way to some slight smokiness in the middle of the sip that adds a much needed shot of character. This smokiness plays up those fleeting light chocolate notes and lets both extend into an otherwise tepid finish.

That high carbonation mixes with a soft palate and a medium body to make this porter too watery and bland for the style. If Dean Coffey and company had dialed the fizz down and pumped up the smokiness they could have had something special. But, once again, Ale Asylum fails to deliver on a highly promising start. Give it a try if you like your porters on the lighter side, but if you’re like me and want your “entires” a bit meatier, give the Contorter a pass.

Reviewed by Eddie Glick on May 29, 2008.

Drinkin’ And Thinkin’

Beer Dorks News

Want to know how healthy the craft beer industry is? As always, look to Portland. Craft pioneer Bridgeport announces sudden closure, adding to a growing list of PDX casualties. Did Anheuser-Busch Chicago offer their shit beer to Cody Parkey before his missed field goal? Because that may explain why he "accidentally" biffed it. Chicago now has the most breweries of any city in the country. Other things Chicago has the most of: murders, mobsters, and Ditkas. Trying to spin it positive, BA releases end of year graphic. Only 5% growth in the craft sector when nearly 1000 new breweries opened? That's a collapse waiting to happen. R.I.P. Tallgrass... another casualty as the regional/national craft beer market continues to get squeezed. Wait... Constellation Brands cut all of the Ballast Point and Funky Buddha sales staff? They merged it with their Corona/Modelo staff?? We're SHOCKED!!! Pizza Beer founder crying about failure of company, blames everyone else. Reminder, the beer tasted like vomit. Try having better ideas or making better products so you're not a failure. It's Bud Light so doesn't really matter, but we expect this beer to be sitting around for awhile. Indiana brewery to open with controversial beer names to "get the conversation going". Translation: taking advantage of serious issues for free publicity. Hundreds of amazing beers in Wisconsin and the Cubs took back the one everyone drinks just because it exists and people have heard of it. How fitting...