A Whale A Week: Alaskan Smoked Porter Vertical Tasting

Last week we covered the rare Goose Island Bourbon County Stout 2009.  This week, tired of endless barrel aged beers, I decided to try something a little different.  Our friends Randy and Andrea own a boat on Lake Minnetonka and invited us to come out on the lake for some food and beer sharing.  We’ve been trying to make this work for almost two years, and finally the stars aligned!  The two of them added extra enticement with a vertical tasting of Alaskan Smoked Porter that they had been saving up for such an occasion.  The beer itself is not incredibly rare, and most would agree that it isn’t a whale beer on its own.  However, getting to taste vintages ranging from 2002 to 2014 in one sitting?  That is a different story!  Maybe we’ll call this a Pod of Dolphins instead…

A little background before we get to it.  Alaskan Brewing was one of the early craft breweries to lead the current wave, starting up in Juneau way back in 1986.  For those Minnesotans reading thi …