15 Best Porter Beers From Across the Globe

Brewer: Hill Farmstead

Style: American Porter

Hill Farmstead is so well regarded for its saisons and hoppy pale ales that it’s easy to overlook that they brew one of world’s great porters. Everett pours an opaque black with a tan head that leaves a delicate lacing down the side of the glass as you drink. It carries its 7.5-percent alcohol with grace, but there’s no mistaking the depth of flavor and complexity in this beer as impossibly deep chocolate roast flavor blends into a subtle underlying sweetness.

(Photo Courtesy of Hill Farmstead)

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Brewer: Anchor Brewing

Style: American Porter

“For porters, Anchor Porter is very hard to top,” says Michael Roper, owner of Chicago’s Hopleaf. “It’s true to its English roots, smooth, lightly roasty, and rich.” But it’s the richness that sets Anchor apart from its lighter-bodied English brethren. The flavors run deep with a heady mix of coffee, caramel, and dark chocolate.

(Photo Courtesy of Anchor Brewing)

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Brewer: Great Lakes Brewing

Style: American Porter

Named for the ill-fated freighter that sank into Lake Superior in 1975, this dark ale from Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing is the quintessential American porter: booming roast-forward flavors with plenty of hoppy bitterness and just a tinge of coffee. The rich, intense malts make it perfectly warming for those chilly lake effect snow-drenched winters and interminable nights.

(Photo Courtesy of Great Lakes Brewing)

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Brewer: Founders Brewing

Style: American Porter

Lacey, velvety, and sweet, Founders’ robust porter is bursting with a bouquet of caramel, chocolate, and espresso and a distinguishing dark fruit character that’s more prune and fruit leather than fresh blackberry or cherry. The brewery is known for its heavy handed, hoppy beers, and while this one is no exception, the piney, bitter notes are kept in check with dark toasty flavors and a heady, almost dessert-like aroma.

(Photo Courtesy of Founders Brewing)

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Brewer: Deschutes Brewery

Style: American Porter

This rich and creamy porter, the flagship of Oregon’s famed Deschutes Brewery, is part of the American craft beer canon, up there with the likes of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Steam. It’s gently sweet, like milk chocolate, and less aggressively roasty than many American porters, making it a perfect entry-level beer for the style.

(Photo Courtesy of Deschutes Brewery)

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Brewer: Alaskan Brewing

Style: American Porter

Though now a commonplace ingredient, Alaskan Brewing was one of the first American producers to introduce smoked malt into a porter. It’s a no-brainer: the beguiling smoky notes mingling seamlessly with the dark charred flavors and chocolaty aromas. And because this beer is very limited and tends to age well — it’s released each November under a new vintage — older bottles are highly sought after by collectors and rare-beer enthusiasts.

(Photo Courtesy of Alaskan Brewing)

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Brewer: Jack’s Abby

Style: Baltic Porter

Unlike ale-fermented American porters, Baltic-style porters are cold-fermented with lager yeasts for a smooth, clean mouthfeel and a distinctive fruitiness. This version from Massachusetts’ all-lager brewery, Jack’s Abby, is big and robust but also smooth and all too drinkable, despite its hefty 10-percent ABV. The brewery also releases a number of barrel-aged variants including Cocoa-Nut, Coffee, and PB&J.

(Photo Courtesy of Jack’s Abby)

Brewer: Amager Bryghus

Style: Baltic Porter

Rye malt lends spiciness and dry feel to this savory porter from Denmark’s Amager, whose forte is big, aggressively flavored ales and lagers. The nose is all spice and rum, while the palate is mellow and thick like dark, amber-hued honey or sweet sorghum molasses. While not an entry-level beer by any means, it’s relatively approachable for experienced and adventurous beer geeks.

(Photo Courtesy of Amager Bryghus)

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Brewer: Duck Rabbit Brewery

Style: Baltic Porter

The muggy coastal plains of eastern North Carolina may be the last place you’d expect to find an exemplary Eastern European-inspired porter but the Duck Rabbit Brewery in Farmville makes one of the finest examples anywhere. Rich, robust, and smooth, it unfurls as it warms in the glass with an enchanting softness and a punchy finish of alcohol and licorice.

(Photo Courtesy of Duck Rabbit Brewery)

Brewer: Oy Sinebrychoff Ab

Style: Baltic Porter

This inky Finnish porter is jet black and opaque, like cold-brewed coffee or thick chocolate syrup. The caramel-toffee nose and nutty, sweet-and-savory finish are reminiscent of Cherry Coke infused with toasted hazelnuts. The alcohol (7.2 percent) is warming and heady while the charred malts lend scorched-earth flavors that linger well beyond the last sip. Overall, it’s a sugary, burnt, bitter melange that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

(Photo Courtesy of Oy Sinebrychoff Ab)

Brewer: Samuel Smith Brewery

Style: English Porter

English Porters are generally lighter in body, color, and flavor than their American and Baltic counterparts, with soft, sweet flavors reminiscent of caramel and cereal rather than bittersweet chocolate and burnt grain. Sam Smith’s Famous Taddy Porter is the archetype — medium-bodied and toasty with a mineral tang and a dry, snappy finish.

(Photo Courtesy of Samuel Smith Brewery)

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Brewer: Fuller’s Brewery

Style: English Porter

Another refined example of the original porter, Fuller’s London Porter is brewed at the Griffin Brewery along the banks of the Thames in Chiswick, London. The brewery has been in service since the early 19th century and makes some of the most iconic English-style ales including Fuller’s ESB and London Pride.

(Photo Courtesy of Fuller’s Brewery)

Brewer: Green Man Brewery

Style: English Porter

Asheville’s Green Man Brewery has long specialized in traditional styles like malty ESBs and balanced, not-overly-hoppy English-style IPAs. Perhaps its best year-round beer, though, is the Green Man Porter — dark, rich, and so smooth that it’s sublime. Robust caramel notes lead to soft chocolate aromas that tiptoe on the outskirts of the beer, making it delicate, silky, and sturdy all at once.

(Photo Courtesy of Green Man Brewery)

Brewer: Harviestoun Brewery

Style: English Porter

This ruddy-brown Scottish-brewed porter developed from a ‘70s-era homebrew recipe that extracts its creaminess from oats and its herbal spice from England’s Kent Golding and Fuggle hops. The beer is mellow and sleek with earthy chocolate flavors on the back end and just a hint of dark cherry and licorice on the finish.

(Photo Courtesy of Harviestoun Brewery)

Brewer: Funky Buddha

Style: American Porter

Despite a relatively reasonable 6.4-percent alcohol, this brew packs more flavors into a porter than about anything we’ve come across. Released just once a year at the Florida brewery, it wallops your palate with the salty-sweet flavors that the name implies. The porter opens with maple, which is thick but not cloying, then rolls into fresh-brewed coffee before finishing with the smoky bacon. Though it contains all our favorite breakfast elements, we’d save this bruiser to sip after dinner.

(Photo Courtesy of Funky Buddha)

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