A cracking winter night of Porters in Darlo - Ale Stars wrap up

Here's what Jeff had to say about the night:

Tuesday night saw the third ever Darlo ale stars and it was another cracker. The lure of great beer proved too much and once again the restaraunt was packed to the rafters with eager lovers of the frothy stuff. It was awesome to see a lot of new faces incuding a group of Americans bringing an international feel to the night, and also great to see a few groups keeping up their 100% attendance record. The "Beer Monsters" nestled into their corner, and "lusitania" teamed up again to see if they could make it a hatrick of quiz wins, while AG welcomed us all and introduced us to this months flavour - Porters.

The Beer Monsters - OK so it's from last month - who forgot the camera?

After another typically great delivery by our Ale Star Tsar, on the history and brewing methods that make Porters unique, we were all well and truly ready to get stuck into the first of the night. Porters first appeared in the 18th century and came about as bars blended dark and light beers to create a strong, yet affordable ale for the railway workers... The Porters! The style died out for a while but is having a rennaisance, of sorts, mostly thanks to American breweries (and now many others) turning out some real crackers.

Like all good sessions we kicked off with the least challenging of the pack and the first train out of the station was Emersons London Porter. The Kiwis get a lot of stick over here, but there's nothing bad we can say about this little beauty. The Emerson Brewery has been belting out some great beers and this is no exception. It had a sweet chocolatey aroma, a smooth taste and a roasty, coffee aftertaste.

The crowd was loving it, and the chatter about raisins vs currents, coffee, chocolate and all those other things we talk about when tucking into quality Porters could only be interupted by equally enjoyable pizza from the Norwegian Siren in the kitchen!

The quiz got into full swing and with our carry over champs being slugged with a handicapp this week, the field opened right up and that free round of beers was up for grabs.

Controversy flowed, commments flew and the tech-bell, usually reserved to get clarification on something a little too techy for the newbies, was now being used to bring order to the excited mass now ready for beer no. 2.

Out came Samuel Smith's Famous Taddy Porter... a belter. Michael Jackson, not the one glove wearing guy that likes little kids and a monkey named Bubbles, but the world's most respected beer writer, considered it one of the top 5 beers in the world. Most people gave it the thumbs up over the Emersons, but there seemed to be more excitement about what was to come. More pizza, more quiz questions and more talk about raisins, chocolate, viscosity and malt and we were ready for the one it seemed like everyone was holding out for... Meantime London Porter.

To say it was worth the wait is a gross understatement. To say it was the favourite of the night is also an understatement, and to say it's a beautiful beer would be the biggest understatement of all. It's a smooth, perfectly balanced, rounded beer that you could drink all night... and then some.

Rounding off the night in style was the Murrays Best Extra Porter. We were fortunate to drink the last bottles left in the Country and Shaun, Murray's Brewer, felt that the year it spent in the bottle had aged it well and it was certainly at it's best.


(Some of) Team Lucitania - OK, OK - again from 2 months ago. Can someone please bring a camera in July?

So, another cracking Ale Stars night in Darlo. Specal thanks to AG for another awesome job up the front, Jess for keeping the peace with the bell, aul, Nicki, Siren and the Local team for keeping the glasses topped up and hot pizza coming through the door. A special mention must go to team Lusitania, who would have won the quiz, again, but for being hobbled by a nasty handicap dished out in the interest of fair sport... I think I heard "Melbourne Cup" used to justify it.

Stay tuned for the beer style for next month, it will be another great night. Make sure you book in early becase we're going to have to start capping numbers to make sure we all fit and all get a seat.