Reviewed by Ron DeGregorio
Recently, I received a visit from some of my best friends in the world; my old college roommates. They were up in my neck of the woods for our suit-fitting for my upcoming wedding. While it is always a special treat to have those two clowns around, my long-time friend, Greg, a police officer in the Cleveland area, was kind enough to bring a custom six-pack of beers I have yet to try. One of his selections was Wolaver’s Alta Gracia Coffee Porter. I’m a huge fan of stouts and porters, and I currently struggle with an addiction to coffee (I’m a teacher, after all), so this was a great way to get my fix and please my pallet.
Wolaver’s Fine Organic Ales hails from the great state of Vermont. What instantly struck me about this beer, before even taking a sip, was their label art. 
The rustic, rural label art, depicting a farmer with a growler in one hand and a pitchfork in the other, with blurbs of being ‘Certified Organic’ as well as shout-outs to their suppliers really grabbed my attention and spurned me into doing some research on this brewery. What I found was quite inspiring.
Wolaver’s is committed to leaving the planet in a better condition than they found it. Their slogan is Better Beer, Better World, which I think is really swell. It shows a different side to the passion that we all know goes into craft beer. Wolaver’s strives to be USDA organic certified as well as makes a strong effort to use as much locally sourced materials as they possibly can. In this particular beer, they use Vermont Coffee Company Coffee with beans from the Alta Gracia Farm Community in the Dominican Republic. They also make use of organic vanilla beans, as well as organic chocolate malts and barley to really give this beer a homegrown, clean, safe flavor. While I personally do not shop organic (Teacher’s just don’t make enough money to do so), I do appreciate when I can enjoy an organic product. I like to think I am fairly Earth-conscious, so drinking this beer gives me those warm, fuzzy feels.
Here is what Wolaver’s has to say about their Alta Gracia Coffee Porter: “
This great tasting beer is the result of a fantastic collaboration of farmer, roaster, and brewer – all with strong Vermont ties.
Just down the road from our roastery here in Middlebury, our friends at Otter Creek Brewing brew world-class artisan beer. They’ve won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival – quite an accomplishment for such a small brewery. A few years ago Morgan Wolaver had created a series of organic beers featuring ingredients from small farmers in the area. Since we are his neighbor down the street from the brewery, he wanted to also honor all of our farmer friends in the communities of Los Marranitos, Los Dajaos, and El Dulce in the Dominican Republic. His brewmaster, Mike Gerhart, developed the brew after careful experimentation and collaboration with our roasters Dave and John and Joe.
Alta Gracia Coffee Porter is an exceptionally smooth and flavorfully complex beer that is surprisingly true to the porter style. The hint of vanilla brings out the sweetness of the dark-roasted Dominican coffee. “
Let’s take a look at what I thought of this Coffee Porter:
APPEARANCE:
As I pour Alta Gracia, it is much lighter than I had anticipated. Porters are typically very dark brown, border lining on black or motor-oil color. This is almost the color of a darker Brown Ale. Copper-toned brownish-red hues line the edges of the beer, almost creating a ‘cherry-coke’ like color, or what I like to call, Robitussin-Red. Just from eye-balling it, the beer is very well carbonated. There are bubbles flowing to the top like souls to the pearly gates.
AROMA:
Satiating my never-ending appetite for a good cup o’ mud, the first aroma to reach my nose was a blast of coffee. Rich, deep aromas of roasted coffee beans were abundant. Following almost instantly were big chocolate notes as well as subdued, but ever-present vanilla notes. This smells delicious, almost like a hand-crafted caffeinated delight your local barista would whip up for you on a snowy day.
TASTE:
The first flavors to hit my palette were, surprisingly, not coffee, but chocolate! A big rush of awesome chocolate floods the mouth, quickly followed by those coffee flavors I had hoped for and anticipated. As far as flavor goes, this one is terrific. I had a hard time picking up any vanilla flavors, but it definitely was there in the aroma.
The one thing I will say about this beer that left me longing was the mouth feel. Normally, a porter or a stout will coat your mouth with an oil-like slickness. Alta Gracia lacked this quality for me, and it left me a bit disappointed. When I drink a stout on a cold winter’s night, I am hoping for a big, huge beer that coats my mouth and leaves me with a lingering flavor to enjoy after I swallow it. This particular beer was just a little too thin for a porter in my opinion. While this did not detract from the flavor at all, it did detract from the overall experience of drinking it. In addition to the lack of body, it was a bit too carbonated for my liking, at least for the style of beer that it is. It felt just a little too bright and thin to be a true porter. I still very much enjoyed the beer, but this is worth mentioning.
Local Hop Farm; Part of Wolaver’s Commitment to Source Locally
100% Organic Barley and Malts Go Into Making Wolaver’s Beers Earth and Health Concious
CONCLUSION:
Overall, I give Alta Gracia Cofee Porter a 86/87, which is a borderline B/B+ score. I loved the aroma and the flavor of the beer, but it lost points on the mouth feel. When it comes to porters, I personally like the thicker, motor-oil type consistencies that this one lacked. I would still highly recommend this beer, as a B+ is nothing to scoff at. I really like the mission that Wolaver’s has in their brewing, and I will gladly support their efforts by purchasing more of their brews. I highly recommend you check out Vermont Coffee’s page to learn more about this beer, as well as checking out Wolaver’s Facebook page to keep up with their organic, local efforts!
Until next time,
Cheers!
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