Big Drop Off-Piste Hazelnut Porter

ABV: 0.5%
Calories per bottle: 85 (26 per 100ml)

We’re big fans here of Big Drop’s Galactic Milk Stout, so we were very excited to try their Hazelnut Porter, which we found through Drydrinker.

For those who might not know, porters are very similar to stouts. Both are dark beers, but porters are perhaps a little fruitier and less roasty in their taste. The main difference is one of geography: you can trace the origins of stout to Ireland, whereas porters are associated with port workers in nineteenth century London – hence the name! Those Cockney dockers fancied that robust dark beer gave them the strength to carry out a day’s hard labour! Either way, whether it’s a stout or a porter, big flavours are what you expect.

So, given that Galactic Stout is so great, this Hazelnut Porter is also fantastic, right? Unfortunately, our taste testers thought not. It certainly looks the part on pouring, but we struggled to spot the hazelnut flavours coming through. Our main problem is that we found it a bit on the thin side – nothing like the fuller flavours a number of dark beers at this ABV have managed to achieve. We were left somewhat underwhelmed, sorry.