FAMILIAR FLAVOUR
With dark chocolate, roasted malt and a hint of toffee, this old favourite offers rich rewards
SOMETIMES you take things for granted because they are so familiar and that is true of beers.
I have often found myself looking blankly at the beer fridge at the bottlo wondering what I should drink.
In winter it’s usually beers of the darker persuasion and one of those sitting in front of me is the James Squire Jack of Spades porter.
It’s been around for a long while now, but it is one of the harder Squires to find.
This Aussie drop won gold in the brown porter category at the World Beer Cup Awards recently.
It pours with a coffee coloured head, a dark chocolate body and a rich roasted malt nose with a slight hint of toffee.
As a porter, it’s heavier than an old but not as full as a stout, delivering plenty of flavour from the outset.
There is also a good measure of bitterness to make it refreshing.
It is a full-strength beer at 5 per cent yet it doesn’t make you feel too bloated after a few.
It has good sessionability for those who don’t mind the dark side of beer.
It would be well suited to dishes such as sticky chicken legs or wings or maybe even smoked barbecue ribs.
Some beers don’t have to be trendy to be appreciated. Jack of Spades porter may be sitting “back in the deck” when it comes to the other more prominent Squire brews, but in the winter months I think it comes up trumps.