WooHa Brewing Company are one of Scotland’s newest breweries, having launched in April with their lager and porter, and following up with a wheat beer and an IPA, unveiling these at the recent NorthHop and Craft Beer Rising beer festivals.
WooHa’s the brainchild of Heather McDonald, a former microbiologist with a background in finance who took her love for science and brewing and turned it into a thriving business, swapping microscopes and petrie dishes for mash tuns and hydrometers. WooHa's already looking to expand, and are planning to bring in another larger fermentation vessel and are currently looking for a larger site.
And although they’ve started with a lager, porter, IPA and wheat bear (with the majority going straight to bottles), Heather reveals that the firth beer in the WooHa pipeline will be a potent wee Scotch heavy. How potent? Heather reckons it’ll come in at around 10% and be out sometime next year.
WooHa’s porter (5%) has a big chocolate malt aroma, lovely and dense with some earthy spices and gentle beech smokiness. It glugged out of the bottle into a dark, dark brown with a head the colour of lightly toasted white bread.
This is a pleasant and accessible beer – made at the request of Heather’s porter-loving husband Iain - with rich roasted malt flavours, sweet chocolate in the middle, and notes of molasses, before fading out to mildly smokey coffee bitter finish. It was exceptionally smooth, slightly waxy, and well rounded; its character, delicate and subtle, like a glimpse of bats against the night sky with the soft aroma of a nearby wood-burning chimenea drifting by.
FIVE OTHER GREAT PORTERS
Midnight Sun by Williams Brothers (5.6%)
A robust, rich and spiced from the Alloa brewers, Midnight Sun gets its glow from the additional ginger used in the brewing process. Roasted coffee flavours are there, but so too is a serving of bitterly dark chocolate toast, liquorice and sultanas. The ginger meanwhile gives it a delightfully lively edge that moves into a smooth, medium bitter finish.
Gonzo Imperial Porter (9.2%) by Flying Dog
Flying Dog’s Gonzo pours a black, sultry and sexy. The aroma is coffee, liquorice, vanilla and sultanas; taste-wise it's an absolute joy. The roasted coffee and liquorice are there, as is a balancing sweetness with vanilla and stone fruits, ending in a smooth bitter finish. The alcohol makes its presence felt, but you don’t mind. One of the best imperial porters around.
London Porter by Fuller’s (5.4%)
Fuller’s London Porter is a classic. It has the typical roasted coffee and dark chocolate flavours courtesy of brown, crystal and chocolate malts, which also give it a deep, deep brown appearance. It’s superbly well rounded and has a smooth, slightly creamy texture with notes of a fecund woodland and roasted caramel; the mildly bitter and long finish complementing the earlier, brief sweetness.
Red Eye Flight mocha porter by Tempest Brew Co (7.4%)
Dark chocolate, bitter black coffee and rich Demerara sugar feature prominently in this strong and complex porter from Tempest in the Borders. Red Eye Flight has a big coffee aroma, and beautifully smooth, the high alcohol content is well disguised by flavours of earthiness and fruitiness that move towards a strong bitter coffee finish that has a lacing of aniseed.
Rascal London porter (5.6%) by Inveralmond Brewery
Pours a deep, brooding brown, with a head the colour of bone washed up on the beach, though it's a beer full of life and character. Initially, the tangy citrus hops work wonders with the rich, dark malts - a bit of young sapling there, also some blackberry and burnt sugar; the roasted flavours so well balanced by the vibrant bittering. Then eases into a long, amiable bittersweet finish.
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