Class of ’88 Imperial Smoked Porter Tasting Party

On this past Monday, Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House (in the Pearl District) had a “Class of ’88 Imperial Smoked Porter Tasting Party”. This was a special addition to their menu that day from 5-8pm where they had a special “flights and small bites in celebration of the release of our next Class of ’88 Collaboration with Great Lakes Brewing Company. This Imperial Smoked Porter is delicious and you will love the porter flight we’ve set up just for this event. Pair Imperial Smoked Porter, Black Butte XXIV and Black Butte Porter with pub inspired specialty appetizers and you can’t go wrong. Cheers to Porters and we hope to see you down here!”

Class of ’88 Flights & Small Bites included a trio of pairs. This included

• a pairing the Black Butte Porter with a crispy chipotle baby back rib;
• Black Butte XXIV Nitro with beer nuts and Mt  Townsend Campfire cheese (a jack cheese with alder and applewood smoke);
• and the Class of ’88 Smoked Imperial Porter with a chocolate porter cube cake

This Class of ’88 Collaboration is their second release of the series for this year. A bit of backstory: the Class of ’88 series of brews is going to be released throughout 2013, and is Deschutes Brewery working with four other craft breweries also founded in 1988 (North Coast Brewing Co., Rogue Ales, Goose Island Beer Co., and Great Lakes Brewing Co.) to create a selection of commemorative beers to celebrate their shared 25th anniversary. Thus the Class of ’88!

The first beer was a trio of commemorative beers in the Barley Wine style at the end of March, brewed with Rogue and North Coast, and each of the three brewers traveled to each brewery to collaborate and each brewery then released their interpretation. Obviously this second one is a Smoked Imperial Porter style. Both are in draft and in limited edition 22-ounce bottles. Next on the list is a collaboration with Goose Island that is supposed to be a Belgian-Style Strong Golden Ale- you can find out some more details here as reported by the New School blog. In fact, it was their review of this smoked imperial porter that solidified my decision to check out this flight, since I had previously had the 2 other beers.

The Deschutes  Black Butte Porter is always a dependable beer- approachable, even if you are not a porter lover like myself. In this case, paired with the crispy chipotle baby back rib, it really became a soothing cleanser for the spicy tangy kick of the rib, providing relief like having a refreshing mango lassi sip while enjoying a curry, both cooling and complementing.

Next, the Black Butte XXIV on Nitro was smooth with a hint of sweetness, and while the sweet nuts raised the profile of with crumbly sugared sweetness and added nuttiness, the cheese was my favorite here by providing a buttery slight smoke slight pepper hint.

Finally, I am kicking myself for not even thinking to check to see if they had bottles of the Class of ’88 Imperial Smoked Porter available. This smoky chocolate goodness balanced sweet and bitter with a woodfire smoke at the end, and that chocolate porter cube cake had me taking the tiniest of bites and licking frosting off my fingers over and over. I don’t often get dessert, and clearly I have been missing out here at the Deschutes Portland Public House. If you see this beer, GET IT!